A Game of Secrets
by frostykitten
Summary: Having not achieved anything great with herself after Hogwarts, Rose is something of a disappointment to her overachieving family. Her only consolation is that they don't know the half of it. Rose has several secrets that could ruin her family forever.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**A/N: This story is... odd, I'm warning you now. I wrote the first 6 chapters in 5 days, so it was written crazy fast. I don't think the story really suffered for it though, you guys be the judge. It's my November novel writing project and completely written.**

**Thanks to Adele for betaing this!**

**Also! Don't forget that voting is open for the Harry Potter Fanfiction Poll Awards. The Devil's Secretary has been nominated. There's a link in my profile.**

**~Frosty**

_I don't care, no I wouldn't dare  
>To fix the twist in you<br>You've shown me eventually what you'll do  
>I don't mind<br>I don't care  
>As long as you're here<em>

_All the Same – Sick Puppies_

Rose reclined in the uncomfortable plastic chair and once again cursed Scorpius Malfoy as she waited in the MLE office. For a good, law abiding citizen, she spent an awful lot of her spare time sitting in the same squeaky plastic chairs usually reserved for petty criminals and their families. She supposed that she technically fell into the second category – though not willingly.

Scorpius needed to gain either some responsibility or a sense of moderation, preferably both. The git had a serious deficiency in both areas. Once again, he had called upon her to come down to the MLE station and bail him out of jail. For reasons beyond her comprehension, she was always the one he called - probably because, against her better judgement, she always went to get him.

She knew without counting that there were 1036 tiles on the ceiling and 43 chairs in the small room. It was dingy and smelled oddly, and half the time there was an overtaxed mother waiting in there with her, filling the air with either sobs or yells. It was always those mothers that, despite all evidence on the contrary, still believed their children to be their little angels.

"He in trouble again, Rose?" Patrick asked, coming into the room with a clipboard. Patrick was almost singlehandedly in charge of all the prisoners thrown into the holding cells and waiting for bail. Rose knew him too well.

Standing from her chair, Rose nodded tiredly. She stomped her foot slightly, trying to get the pins-and-needles feeling go away. If Scorpius planned on calling her to the uncomfortable waiting room again, she was going to make him donate enough money to buy comfortable chairs and possibly a fish tank or something for her to look at while she waited. He could certainly afford it.

"What's he done this time?" she asked as she followed Patrick towards the holding cells.

The man checked his clipboard before snorting in amusement.

Rose's stomach dropped. It was never good when Patrick was amused at Scorpius' antics. She braced herself and when his snort turned into a guffaw, she knew it was going to be really bad.

"The bloke got picked up for prostitution and assaulting an officer."

She blinked, too shocked to react further. Scorpius was many things, but prostitute was not one of them. Someone had to have made a mistake. In different circumstances, she may have been able to see the humour in the situation. As it was, this mistake had dragged her out of her bed and down to the MLE office in the middle of the night, so no one would really blame her for ignoring any amusement she may have otherwise felt.

Holding cells in the ministry were basically the same thing as those in Muggle police stations, but with the added protection of anti-Apparition wards to keep family members from showing up and taking the criminals away. Bare stone walls, simple metal benches bolted to the floor, and a toilet against the back wall created a wonderfully welcoming atmosphere, encouraging visitors to return soon.

"Is he at least sober?" she asked. When intoxicated, Scorpius wasn't his usual surly self. It was disturbing.

Patrick shook his head. "Sorry Rose."

He didn't look all that sorry, the MLE officer was still wearing that amused expression that had taken over his face the moment he'd set eyes on her.

Exhaling a sigh, she continued to follow Patrick down the hallway towards the holding cells. A sober Scorpius had been too much to hope for.

The blond was sprawled out across one of the benches in the cell, an arm thrown dramatically over his eyes while he appeared to sleep. Even unconscious and drunk the pillock somehow manage to look regal. Rose had no idea how he did it, but she did have the suspicion that it was a subconscious thing, instilled at a young age by a slightly insane and entirely too strict Pureblood mother. If that was the case, she'd much rather have her loving mother and the grace of a newborn giraffe.

"Wake up, Malfoy, you're free to go," Patrick called, opening the cell. He handed Rose Scorpius' wand – prisoners weren't allowed to be in possession of their own wands until they were out of the building. Rose pocketed it for later, she had a few hexes she wanted to try on him before she gave him a way to defend himself.

Groaning, the blond removed the arm from his face and stiffly rose from the bench.

"Rose," he slurred with that sweet smile he only ever showed when he was completely smashed. It was the kind of smile a child shows upon seeing something that delighted them. Scorpius was only the type to display childish delight with copious amounts of alcohol in his system.

Unfortunately, copious amounts of alcohol also made him too friendly.

He stumbled out of the cell and threw his arms around Rose, burying his nose in her bushy hair, murmuring her name again.

With a grimace, Rose pushed him to arm's length and cast a sobering charm. Hers were stronger than the average person's; she had more practice than most.

While Scorpius regained his bearings, she turned to Patrick and handed him a small bag of Galleons for the bail. "You could have cast a sobering charm on him _before _you let him out," she complained. Her own spell wouldn't have made it past the bars; her wand didn't have that kind of clearance.

"We all know you both secretly enjoy those moments of closeness, it's such a nice difference from your usual sexual-tension fuelled bickering," Patrick said.

Scorpius twisted his face into a mask of disgust. "Sobering charm or not, I'm already fighting off nausea. Don't make me vomit with your disgusting musings."

Ah, there was the Scorpius she knew and loathed.

"Prostitution?" she asked as they walked out of the building.

He didn't look at her, probably a little embarrassed for throwing himself at her only moments before – he usually was. His embarrassment after the fact never stopped him from doing it however.

"I was just wandering down the street, minding my own business-"

"Drunk beyond all reason," Rose added.

"Slightly tipsy," he amended. "When out of nowhere, this man asked me how much for my... services. Being the upstanding citizen I am, I promptly punched him. When someone tried to break up the fight, I punched him as well. I was only charged with the prostitution because my arresting officer was riled that I'd broken his nose."

Rose snorted. Scorpius was about as upstanding a citizen as Voldemort had been – okay, maybe he wasn't quite _Voldemort _bad, but upstanding citizen he was not.

"You're just bitter because it's required of you as the evil stepsister."

Rose winced, hating to be reminded that they were stepsiblings. Her father had run off when she was in fifth year and Scorpius' psycho-bitch of a mother had tried to strangle her son, leaving her husband with full custody and a divorce. Somehow, Hermione Weasley and Draco Malfoy had found a spark between them, and by Rose's seventh year of Hogwarts, she'd had a brand new stepfather and brother. Needless to say, their home life was a little rocky at times.

"Aren't you supposed to be crushing my dreams or something?" he continued.

Rose raised an eyebrow. "No, I'm supposed to come between you and your prince. But wait! You've already punched the only prince who would've ever wanted your screwed up arse."

"For your information, I could get any bloke I wanted," he said. "You should know; I've gotten _you_ easily enough."

Restraining a blush, Rose grabbed his wrist and Apparated them both to Malfoy Manor, where the both of them had been living since they'd graduated from Hogwarts a year and a half ago.

In her family, Rose was known as something of a screw-up. Her grades had been good enough to rival her mother's, but after school, Rose had found that she just didn't have the motivation to move onto the "something more" everyone seemed to expect of her. It was just too much pressure. So she lived in Malfoy Manor with her mum, step father, deadbeat stepbrother, and Hugo - when he wasn't at Hogwarts. It was a strange arrangement, but it was sufficient while she worked on finding something better.

Unfortunately, Rose had an idiot of a stepbrother constantly calling her to come get him from the MLE office. His ridiculous and over the top behaviour made even Rose look like a huge success.

The moment they were outside the unreasonably large building they called home, Rose released Scorpius' wrist, making him stumble and fall on his arse. It seemed he wasn't as sober as he'd wanted her to think.

"You know," she said almost conversationally as they walked side by side up the long drive, "your cries for attention only work if your parents actually hear about them. Having me come to get you and keep it a secret from your father really doesn't accomplish anything."

"You've had three boyfriends and cheated on every one of them with the same person: me. Are we really going to have a conversation about cries for help?"

"Don't talk about that!" she snapped. "Our parents would kill us both."

Scorpius was remarkably unconcerned about his possible – and probably painful - death. "They'd kill _you, _that sort of behaviour is expected of me."

That was the worst part of the situation; he was right. Though she'd been just as drunk as Scorpius all three times, a person didn't just accidentally sleep with their stepbrother three times. Once could _maybe _be called a drunken lapse in judgement, but after the second time the accidental ship had sailed.

For a while, Rose had suspected that Scorpius had purposely gotten her drunk and then seduced her, but she couldn't figure out his motivation for doing something like that. Spiteful bastard that he may be, she didn't believe that he would intentionally set out to sabotage any chance at a normal relationship she may have had.

Somehow, they'd managed to keep the incidents from both their parents, but Rose worried that it was only a matter of time before something came out. Hermione had asked Rose several times what had happened with her most recent boyfriend, a nice Hufflepuff. It had been pretty serious until Scorpius came along and ruined it just like her previous two relationships.

"We're so screwed up," she sighed. "It's amazing Hugo isn't a crack dealer or something with role models like us in his life."

Scorpius nodded his blond head. "That brother of ours is one disturbingly well-adjusted kid."

Finally, _finally,_ they arrived at the huge double doors of the Manor.

"If you expect me to do that again, you're donating enough money for them to replace every chair in those waiting rooms of theirs with something cushy. I risk Deep Vein Thrombosis every time you get arrested," Rose said, remembering her earlier resolution.

He arched an eyebrow at her. "Why should I waste the money? We both know you'll come get me whether I bother or not."

Eyes wide at his audacity, Rose stormed up the stairs to her room and slammed the door. The effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that Scorpius followed behind her, laughing as he went. Someone had thought it would be a good idea to give all three children bedrooms in the same hallway, dubbing it the 'children's wing', so their rooms were only a few doors down.

More than anything, she hated that he was right. Rose sighed; she was entirely too nice to be related to Malfoys.

* * *

><p>Rose dragged herself out of bed, hating Scorpius all the more because it was his fault she was feeling so tired. Just once, would it really hurt him to call her down to the MLE office in the afternoon? It was always the middle of the night with him.<p>

Years of practice allowed her to reach the kitchen for her morning juice without properly opening her eyes. If she'd had any say in the matter, Rose would have slept until well after noon. Unfortunately, she had to work.

Working for her Uncle George at his shop wasn't exactly the future Hermione had always pictured for her only daughter, but she'd resigned herself to it after a few monstrous arguments. Rose liked working with her uncle; he was laid back and carefree, something she aspired to be.

Her disgustingly cheerful mum was giggling as Rose approached the kitchen. She could hear the sound before she even entered the room. Her nose wrinkled; Rose had a feeling she wasn't going to like whatever it was she was about to walk in to see.

Hermione was at the stove cooking while Draco was behind her kissing her neck and smiling. Not something Rose wanted to see first thing in the morning. They were old, that sort of thing was supposed to be out of their systems.

"Disgusting," Scorpius complained, coming into the kitchen behind Rose.

In a misguided effort to unite their families, Hermione insisted they eat breakfast together every morning.

It didn't help.

If anything, the forced breakfasts were straining their relationships further.

They each took a chair at the table Hermione had insisted they have in the kitchen. At first, all meals had been taken in the formal dining room, but Hermione had put an end to that practice pretty quickly. She wasn't one to stand for such stiff formalities for casual family meals. She claimed it took away from the comfortable atmosphere that should surround a family.

In Rose's experience, a less formal setting didn't mean that they weren't excruciatingly uncomfortable, but Hermione overlooked that minor detail.

"How are you children?" Hermione asked while they dug into steaming plates of pancakes. She resolutely refused to accept that they were legally adults – probably because neither of them really_ acted_ like adults. It wasn't their fault that they hadn't lived through a war that made them old before their time.

Rose opened her mouth to answer, but she caught sight of the paper her stepfather had just picked up. The front page story was going to make for some interesting breakfast conversation. She slid her eyes over to Scorpius, who was slightly more pale than usual. He must have noticed the article as well.

"I think I know," Draco said, his tone ominous. He'd just opened the paper to the front page, which was sporting an unflattering picture of Scorpius with bleeding knuckles and a snarl on his face. He looked surprisingly fierce, something that was only going to hinder Draco's ongoing effort to make people forget that there were Death Eaters in the family.

"You forgot to bribe the press, didn't you?" Scorpius muttered out of the side of his mouth so neither of their parents would notice.

Rose shrugged; it had been the middle of the night when he called her. Small things like bribing the media tended to slip her mind when she was barely awake.

Sighing, Scorpius braced himself for an explosion as Draco unfolded the paper and showed it to his wife.

"PROSTITUTION?" Hermione screeched, completely horrified.

Eyes flashing coldly, Draco looked at his son. "That's the third time this year. This is unacceptable behaviour for a Malfoy; you're dragging our name through the mud."

Both parents were so busy focusing on the falsely contrite Scorpius to notice Rose as she nearly choked on her orange juice. If they only knew about three of the times she'd gone to pick him up and were this upset, then they'd have a heart attack should they ever see the MLE file on Scorpius.

"In my defence," Scorpius said, making sure to look both parental units in the eyes, "I only got the prostitution charge because I broke the arresting officer's nose. He was being spiteful."

Draco whipped the paper onto the table. "That's it. We're sending you to go work for your grandfather. Maybe some time with him will make you appreciate how lenient I've been with you."

Judging by the angry red tinge that was staining both the Malfoy's usually pale skin, Rose could tell a shouting match of monumental proportions was about to begin. She took a few more hurried bites of her delicious pancakes before trying to slip away.

"Not so fast, Rose," Hermione said before her daughter was even out of her chair. "I have some news I want to share with you children, though I was hoping for a slightly different atmosphere to deliver the announcement."

Once again, Rose shot a glance at her stepbrother, but he was too busy engaged in a fierce staring match with his father. He probably hadn't even registered that Hermione had said something. Subtly, Rose elbowed him under the table to snap him out of the contest of wills. They'd be stuck like that for a while if she or her mother didn't interfere.

Nervously, Hermione twisted her fingers together, betraying her nervousness.

Rose's eyes widened; the last time her mum had seemed so bothered by an announcement, she'd had to tell her and Hugo that their dad had left. Draco was obviously still present, so the announcement was probably of a different nature this time. Maybe they were getting a divorce? Rose didn't think so, their disgusting display only moments before didn't exactly scream divorce.

Reaching over, Draco covered Hermione's twisting hands with one of his own, lending her strength and presenting a united front. Okay, so definitely not divorce. What could it be?

"I'm pregnant," Hermione blurted in a rush.

Almost before the words were out of her mouth, Scorpius was up from the table and out of the room.

Rose took a little longer to process the information, blinking at her mum in startled confusion. She'd heard the words, but they didn't quite make sense in the current context. Parents weren't allowed to reproduce once their oldest child graduated, it was just wrong.

Hermione sighed. "I was expecting him to take the news badly."

"Not your fault, darling," Draco soothed, making Rose shiver with revulsion. There had to be a rule somewhere that parents and step-parents couldn't be all touchy in front of offspring. It was _wrong._

"How did this happen?" Rose asked. She flushed and immediately changed her answer. "I _mean_, aren't you right on the edge of menopause? The chances of getting pregnant at you age are so slim..."

Nope, still things she didn't want to know. "You know what? Never mind. I have to go to work anyway."

Rose stood from the table and left the room, just as Scorpius had before her. Really, what did they expect after such disquieting news so early in the morning?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**A/N: Thanks to all the wonderful people who reviewed! Also thanks to Adele who edited this for me.**

**There's something I'd like to clear up, some of you seem confused. ****To my knowledge, it is not illegal for step siblings to date or marry. I believe that the issue with real siblings or related people marrying (besides the ick factor) is that they're too closely related genetically and, should they have children, run a major risk of birth defects or stillbirths, miscarriages, etc, so it's illegal. Step siblings, however, don't have this issue. As far as I can tell, it's completely legal for step siblings to marry.**

**~Frosty**

The cold breeze she felt as soon as she opened her bedroom door told her that the window was open, which meant that her room was not her own at the moment. Almost imperceptibly, Rose sighed. Her mind wasn't even wrapped around the new information; she was in no condition to confront Scorpius about his feelings on the issue.

She walked over to the window and peeked outside, wrapping her arms around herself as protection from the chill. Just as she'd been expecting, Scorpius was there, perched on the convenient outcropping of roof that was right outside her window, smoking a cigarette.

When she'd first moved into her room, she'd been shocked to wake up in the middle of the night to find a figure climbing out her window. Ready to hex the intruder, she'd followed him to find Scorpius out there, smoking his way through a pack of cigarettes.

She'd been surprised to find out that the Pureblooded boy had such a Muggle habit, but upon thinking about it, Rose had realized that it was the perfect rebellion for the son of a former blood-supremacist. Not only was it exceptionally bad for him, but it was a Muggle product he was using to kill himself slowly.

Rose poked her head out the window. "Those things are going to kill you," she warned.

Ignoring her, he pointedly took a long drag and then blew the smoke in her direction. Of course the wind was blowing towards her room, so all of the smoke whipped right over her face and into her room.

"Charming," she grumbled, trying not to cough. Sometimes she wondered how he hadn't landed himself in the hospital yet. She could have thought someone would have given into their anger and hexed him by now. The arse certainly had a knack for finding people's buttons and pushing them constantly and mercilessly.

Not willing to fight with him and then go to work angry, Rose refrained from yelling at him. "Just make sure you close the window when you're done. I hate it when I come home to frost on the carpet."

He grunted to show he'd heard, but didn't comment farther.

Normally, she would have snipped at him about speaking in full sentences, but she had to get to work.

* * *

><p>Rose tied on her apron and pulled her hair into a ponytail before taking her place behind the counter at the shop. She'd learned the hard way that some of the spells stocked at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes were best kept far away from her hair after spending a week with curls that would grab onto anyone who got too close.<p>

"Why so glum, Rosie Posey?" her uncle George asked, leaning against the counter.

She exhaled a huge, gusty sigh. "My mum's gone insane, and my stepbrother snapped."

When Rose had come back from work after Hermione's announcement, Scorpius had been gone. Ever since then, Scorpius had been keeping away from the Manor and Hermione had taken to fussing over Rose as if that would bring Scorpius back.

Draco didn't seem worried; he said Scorpius was reporting to work for his grandfather just like he'd been ordered to, so they shouldn't waste their energy on concern for him. Personally, Rose thought his father should be showing _some _concern for his only son, but it wasn't her place to say anything.

All in all, Malfoy Manor wasn't the most comfortable place to live at the moment.

"I hate to break it to you Rose, but your mum's always been a little bit mental. Anyone who would want to marry my deadbeat of a brother isn't all there."

Rose didn't take offense to his words, George said it with such a light-hearted delivery that it was obvious he was only kidding about Hermione being mental. His comments on his brother however, were filled with a menace that was fully warranted.

The shop bells clanged, making Rose glance towards the door with the plastic smile she reserved for store customers.

"Rose!"

Horrified, Rose shot a panicked glance at her uncle, who didn't seem concerned that Scorpius had just staggered into the shop, drunk in the middle of the day. If anything, George looked like he was expecting a show.

"Scorpius, there are _children_ here! You can't just show up like this," she scolded as she grabbed his elbows to steady him. He was swaying as he tried to get her into focus by alternately squinting and blinking too much.

The drunken prat hugged her. "I haven't seen you in _days_ Rose," he said.

Her eyes snapped open when she felt his lips press against the crown of her head. Had he just kissed her hair?

"Uncle George, can I take my break a little early?" she asked, a little higher in pitch than her usual voice.

George nodded, looking like he was on the verge of bursting into laughter.

It was difficult to turn on the spot accompanied by a drunken idiot, but Rose managed. She was aided by the fact that said drunken idiot seemed determined to cling to her like a barnacle. If she could have supported both their weight, he probably would have pulled the move favoured by toddlers: wrapping both his legs and arms around her and clinging while demanding to be carried.

With great difficulty, Rose pried his arms off of her. "Stop that before one of our parents sees," she snapped. "Where have you _been_? Mum's been worried sick about you."

She grabbed his elbow and started dragging him towards the house.

Several times during the long walk from the edge of the anti-Apparition wards to the front doors of the Manor, Rose tried to cast a sobering charm on her idiot stepbrother, but he was much too drunk for it to work. He must have consumed an entire brewery.

"Doesn't matter as long as I go to work," he mumbled.

Rose released his elbow to open the door, which turned out to be a mistake. Without that restraining touch, he was free to wrap his arms around her from behind.

"Scorpius, is that you?" Hermione called from somewhere in the house.

"Shit," Rose muttered. "Scorpius, let go of me!"

She tried to shuffle into the house, but he wouldn't budge. "Don't wanna," he slurred, continuing to hold onto her like she was some sort of giant teddy bear.

Knowing her mum would instantly be suspicious to see Rose and Scorpius getting along; Rose threw an elbow into the blond's stomach.

He released her, groaning and curling around his middle slightly. Rose didn't imagine taking a hit right in the stomach helped with any nausea he may have been experiencing. She was without remorse though; it was his own fault for drinking himself into such a state and then being obstinate.

"Rose? What's going on out here?" Hermione asked, poking her head out the door.

"I found Scorpius, but I have to get back to work," Rose explained. She turned and started heading back towards the gates before her mum had time to ask more questions. Neither of them called her back as she made her way to the edge of the wards once again.

George raised a red eyebrow at her when she arrived back in the shop. "You two have the weirdest friendship I've ever witnessed."

Rose glared. "We're not friends."

"That's not what it looked like to me."

Turning her back on her uncle, Rose reached into a display of Pygmy Puffs and grabbed one as it tried to eat a neighbouring puff. They were adorable little guys, but they ate everything and weren't all that intelligent.

"We're not friends, not even close," she insisted again.

"There's no way he came here looking for me," George said. "The boy was here for you. If you two are so unfriendly, then why did he come looking for you?"

Rose didn't have an answer.

* * *

><p>There was a letter waiting on her bed when she got back to the Manor.<p>

_Rose,_

_Mum won't tell me what's going on over there, but she says she has big news for when I'm home. It's not something horrible, is it?_

_Hugo_

Rose frowned at the reminder of her mum's pregnancy. No one had mentioned it since Scorpius had gone missing. It was as if by not speaking of it, they could bring Scorpius back. Now that Scorpius had returned, she was slightly concerned that Hermione would call a family meeting and make everyone share their feelings on the pregnancy. Rose shuddered; if her mum attempted to call any such meeting, Rose would be the next one to go missing.

It made absolutely no sense that her mum would send her brother a letter telling him that she had big news but not actually tell him the big news. She supposed that Hermione wanted to prepare him for the announcement but didn't want to share it in a letter, but that was a little barmy. For someone so smart, Hermione didn't make sense sometimes.

Rose sent a quick owl back to her brother reassuring him that it wasn't anything horrible. There was no sense worrying Hugo over a pregnancy that wouldn't be an issue for another several months. Besides, he had exams coming up and didn't need the weight of family drama to distract him from his studies. Rose knew how serious he was about beating her exam scores.

"Rose?" Hermione called through the door.

The redhead padded to the door and opened it, admitting her mum.

"What is it?"

Hermione searched her daughter's face with her too-observant eyes. "I can't believe I'm going to ask you this, but what's going on with Scorpius?"

"Why would you think _I _would know?" Rose asked, trying not to look shifty. She tried to convince herself that she had nothing to be shifty about, but she didn't quite manage it. There were a few things she'd prefer her mother to remain in the dark about.

"He kept asking for you while I levitated him up to his room earlier."

Shite. The bloody idiot was going to end up blurting he'd shagged her one of these days. Then her mum's idea of a happy little family would be completely crushed. As a general rule, Rose tried not to crush her mum's happy little world. She'd had enough trouble after Ron had left, she didn't deserve anymore conflict.

Rose's eyes narrowed; she was going to have to have a word with the blond wanker.

Taking her daughter's hand, Hermione led her to the bed and sat beside her.

"Rose, I know we haven't been able to talk recently. I feel like we're drifting apart, we used to talk about everything."

Dear Merlin, she was going to try and have a heart to heart. Rose winced internally. Now was not the time. She still hadn't properly process the whole pregnancy thing. When they'd still been having those talks about everything, was way back when Rose was younger and didn't have quite so many secrets to keep.

"It's normal for parents to drift apart from their teenagers," Rose said. After contemplating for a moment, she added: "I'm a little thrown off by the baby, but give me some time to adjust to the idea."

Hermione smiled, brushing a strand of hair off of Rose's face and tucking it behind her ear. "Just remember I love you."

Suddenly, fighting off tears, Rose threw her arms around her mum. The woman was odd sometimes, but she was still her mum and she was a good one.

"I love you too, mum."

After Hermione left, Rose slipped out of her room and crept down the hall to Scorpius' room. She knew he was in there because she could hear him snoring through the door. For some reason, he only snored when he'd been drinking.

The door was unlocked, so she just opened it and slipped inside.

It was a wonder he didn't suffocate sleeping facedown the way he was. What was even more wonder-inducing was that he could still make so much noise with a pillow muffling the sound. Without hesitation, Rose walked up to him and slapped him on the back of the head.

"What the hell?" he demanded groggily, rolling over to blink blearily at her.

"You just disappear for _days _and then come to the store completely drunk?" She slapped him again just for effect.

That was actually quite satisfying.

When she went to whack him a third time, he grabbed her wrist and tugged her into the bed beside him. She made a startled squeak as she collided with the softness of his mattress. It smelled like him, something she was a little disturbed to discover that she liked.

"Are you still drunk?" Rose demanded when he rolled over and pressed his chest against her back, holding her close. She hoped he was still drunk; this type of behaviour while they were sober was a whole different can of worms than the one they'd already unleashed.

"Little bit."

She wiggled, trying to free herself. "Let me go."

Even in his current condition, Scorpius was still much stronger than Rose. Stupid arse.

"No."

Well, there was more than one way to escape him.

Taking a deep breath, Rose closed her eyes and concentrated a moment until her perceptions of the world started to shift. Sounds and smells became much stronger and she shrunk until she was much smaller.

When she opened her eyes again, she had to scramble to avoid being crushed as Scorpius fell back onto his front without her body there to hold him on his side.

The blond blinked at the little orange tabby cat staring owlishly at him.

He would never admit it out loud, even when drunk, but there was a vulnerability there in his eyes that was practically begging her to stay with him a while. Rose couldn't just leave him there like that.

She gave his arm a comforting head butt before hopping onto his back and curling herself into a ball between his shoulder blades. Rose had found that as a cat, she craved warmth in a much stronger way then she ever did as human. Despite her fur coat, she often found herself gravitating to the warmest place she could find. At the moment, Scorpius was very warm, and he made a wonderful bed.

"Show-off Animagus," he muttered. There was no reproach in his voice; he preferred that she stay.

Had she been in possession of a human mouth, Rose would have told him it was better this way. He was drunk and would probably molest her in her sleep or something if she was in her own body – neither of them seemed to be able to keep their hands to themselves when alcohol was involved. The problem was that she may mistakenly enjoy his attentions – because of her state of sleep, of course.

With her as a cat, he knew he wasn't alone and neither of them had to worry about their parents checking in on them and discovering his stepsister in his bed. It would be a bit of a stretch, but they would believe that Scorpius was watching a cat for a friend. In some cases, a lie was better than the truth, and this was one of them.

She stretched her tail over his face and tapped it there a few times for the show-off comment, but he didn't retaliate. Rose was pretty sure he was already asleep.

Eventually, she followed him into slumber.

* * *

><p>Her ears flicked, picking up the distant sound of footfalls in the hallway outside the door. It took Rose a moment to realize where she was, why her bed kept shifting, and why she could hear someone way down the hallway.<p>

As soon as she'd recalled the answer to all of those questions, she hopped off of Scorpius' back and dove under the bed. There was only one reason someone would be coming down the hallway of the children's wing, and that was to visit either her or Scorpius. It would save Scorpius having to come up with an explanation if she was out of sight.

The knock on the door seemed abnormally loud and started her heart beating quicker than it's already increased fluttering. She had no reason to be so nervous about the situation; it had been a bit of a close call, but no one would think to look under Scorpius' bed in case he was hiding a cat who's really his stepsister in her Animagus form. That would just be strange.

When Scorpius didn't answer the door or show any signs of waking up, his visitor got impatient and entered the room. It probably wasn't her mum if they were willing to invade personal space without at least trying a little harder for permission.

"I will not stand for you worrying Hermione like you did with your little disappearance," came the clipped tones of Draco, "especially when she's delicate right now."

Scorpius groaned quietly. Had her ears not been so sharp, Rose probably wouldn't have heard the sound. If Rose had been in possession of human vocal chords, she would have groaned too. Had her mum heard what Draco had just said, she probably would have scolded him soundly for treating her like an invalid just because she was pregnant.

"Do we have to do this right now?" Scorpius asked. Considering the sheer volume of libations he'd consumed the previous night, he probably had a rather impressive hangover. Rose whacking him on the head before bed couldn't have helped any.

Rose had only lived with the Malfoys for a few years and even she knew this was the wrong way to handle and angry Draco. Scorpius was either incredibly thick this morning, or he was provoking his father intentionally. Her money was on the latter.

"Sit up and address me properly!" Draco snapped.

The creaking of the bed springs suggested that Scorpius obeyed the order.

"Your grandfather tells me you've been hesitant at work."

Scorpius scoffed. "I'm not cut out for that kind of work. Handling Dark objects all the time, even if it is for the Ministry, isn't something I can do. The Dark Magic weighs on me."

After the war, the Ministry had started purging the old Pureblood family homes of their Dark artefacts, but they had been unsure how to go about doing this. Without intensive knowledge on the subject, death was a very real concern. Lucius Malfoy had volunteered his services and extensive knowledge for the Ministry's cause as a way to make up for his time as a Death Eater. From there, it had morphed into a very successful business.

Rose couldn't imagine that anyone actually let Scorpius handle the Dark objects, but even being near them could be a strain to those in tune with them.

Draco was unsympathetic. "You're not supposed to like your work; it wouldn't be a punishment if you enjoyed it. You need to learn some discipline."

Her ears perked as Draco shifted his weight, ready to take a step.

"Don't worry Hermione like that again," he said, right before leaving the room. Apparently he'd only come for a quick scolding, not an actual conversation. Sometimes Rose was completely lost as to how Draco's parenting methods worked. She could only assume it came from growing up with Lucius. The man didn't exactly set the best example.

Even before the door was completely closed, Rose was out from under the bed. By the time it clicked into place, she was already in her human form.

"That was close," she said with a false smile. She could tell Scorpius was upset about his father's lack of concern, but there wasn't anything she could do. Her stepbrother was obviously not happy that she'd heard his father's little speech and was liable to lash out at her if she commented on what she'd heard.

Scorpius didn't say anything; he didn't even look at her to confirm he's heard her. His hands were clenched in white-knuckled fists on the bed and his jaw was tight with tension.

Just as Rose had predicted, he was coiled to spring at the next thing that offended him. She decided that she wasn't in the mood for one of their verbal sparring matches.

"Mum's going to be expecting us at breakfast soon," Rose said uncomfortably. He still didn't answer, but he nodded slightly to show he'd be there.

Rose grimaced as she slipped out of the room. They really took the cake for dysfunctional, but she didn't know how to fix any of the things that were wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**A/N: Another chapter! Thanks a whole bunch to everyone who reviewed and to Adele for betaing! In case you haven't noticed, I keep changing the summary. I keep thinking of something better. Sorry if it's confusing. **

**~Frosty**

After a breakfast where the spaces between Hermione's forced conversation were filled with frosty silence, Rose headed off to work, actually looking forward to getting out of the Manor.

"Rose, just the girl I was looking for!" her Uncle George said as soon as he saw her walk through the door of the shop. He was standing behind the counter with a customer, so Rose was a little confused as to why he needed _her_. If anyone was an expert on the merchandise, it was the man who _invented _the stuff.

She looked at him questioningly, but he just impatiently gestured her over. Mischievous by nature, George Weasley was almost always up to something, so it wasn't much of a stretch to think that he had an ulterior motive for beckoning. Warily, Rose advanced on the counter, her sense alert for some sort of ambush.

When she got a good look at the man her uncle was helping, Rose began to form a suspicious idea as to why he needed her help. The man was gorgeous. His flawless skin was tanned, his brown curls were glossy, and his dark eyes were sparkling with amusement. He looked like he'd just stepped out of a magazine, Photoshop alterations still clinging to him.

George had long despaired that she was still single; he was like a teenage girl when it came to who she was dating. He thought it was long past time that she started a new relationship. Rose had never been able to figure it out; every time a handsome customer came it, it was always Rose he handed them off to, always with that shit eating grin of his. He either genuinely wanted her to be happy, or he enjoyed her discomfort when set up with strange men. It was possible that his motivations were a combination of the two.

"This is my niece Rose, I'm sure she can get you _whatever _you want," George said, his tone implying things Rose really wished it didn't.

"How can I help you?" she asked the customer, shooting a subtle glare at her uncle. His meddling ways were humiliating, especially when the customers obviously knew what was happening.

"I work in the children's intensive care unit at St. Mungo's. I thought they could use some cheering up. I was wondering if you have any suggestions."

Merlin, he was like the perfect man. Rose was actually tempted to shield her eyes lest she be blinded by his aura of kindness. Uncle George had really outdone himself this time... unless the bloke was secretly a serial killer. No one was that nice.

When she realized it was her inner Scorpius feeding her the cynical thoughts, Rose widened her smile into something slightly less plastic-y and made sure her hand was at her side, _not _shielding her eyes. She dealt with Scorpius on a regular basis; she didn't need him in her head bossing her around when the real version wasn't even present. She could beat this.

"I'm Rose," she said. Inner Scorpius advised against giving her name to Mr. Perfect, so she was going to do the opposite. "Let's see what we can find for those sick children."

"Michael Watts," he said, holding out his hand to shake.

Rose, expecting a handshake, held out her hand as well. Michael grabbed it and kissed her knuckles, a self-depreciating smile on his lips that made the gesture into something sweet when it could have been creepy.

Feeling a blush coming on, Rose searched for a quick distraction. She led him over to a display of tiny dinosaur and dragon figurines. A distraction _and _she was doing her job; it was a win/win situation.

"These are a favourite of the younger children."

"They can't actually bite?" he asked, looking warily at the pointy teeth and claws. The tiny figurines crawled around in their enclosure, snarling at passersby and playing amongst themselves.

Rose shook her head. "No, they can't bite or scratch. They're perfectly harmless."

He brought his hand up to his chin and pretended to think. "I have one more question."

Encouragingly, she nodded; ever the eager little shop assistant and all that. Yep, that was her.

"Would you like to go out sometime?"

Her eyes widened and then narrowed suspiciously. "What did my Uncle say to you before I got here?"

Okay, so the cynical Scorpius voice was lodged too deep to be easily overpowered. It was better to be safe than sorry and a bunch of similar cautionary rubbish.

"Honestly," he said, a little sheepishly. "Your uncle spent so much time building you up into this amazing person that I thought he had to be lying. Now that I've met you though, I think he was telling the truth."

Aww, that was kind of sweet.

Rose had learned pretty young that there were people who only wanted to know her because her parents were famous or because her uncle was Harry Potter. It was stupid and frustrating, but she'd gotten used to dealing with it.

If this man turned out to be one of those fame-hungry losers, then it would probably become apparent on the first date. The date would be the added advantage of making her mum happy that she was doing normal things like dating again. It bothered Hermione that her daughter was so directionless.

After Rose accepted, they set up a date and a place for that weekend.

"Uncle George!" Rose hissed the moment Michael was out of the shop. She knew her meddling uncle was hiding one row of shelves over, listening like the gossipmonger she knew him to be. He was subtle and crafty, but she knew his ways.

Sure enough, her uncle's red head popped up, peeking at her over the shelf. His eyes were twinkling merrily and he had a smug look on his face. She didn't wait for him to say anything.

"You need to stop trying to set me up on dates with every remotely attractive man that sets foot in the shop!" Her voice was a hiss because she didn't want to disturb any of the customers that were browsing the merchandise with their little family drama.

"It worked though, didn't it? This one's a winner," he said with an encouraging smile.

Rose rolled her eyes. Her entire family was insane.

* * *

><p>"Where are <em>you <em>going?" Scorpius asked almost accusingly. His eyes ran over her, taking in the messy up do she'd bullied her hair into and the gold dress that sparkled as she moved. It was more dressed up than she'd been in a long time, probably since their graduation ceremony. Working at a joke shop didn't provide her with many occasions to bring out her formal attire. She liked to think there was approval in his gaze once he'd finished his perusal.

"I have a date," she answered, not looking away from her reflection as she put the final touches on her mascara. One false move and the sticky black stuff would be smeared everywhere and she'd have to start her eye makeup all over again. Mascara was tricky like that and she was out of practice.

Finished her makeup, she turned to face the blond standing in the doorway of her room. "I have a date," she said.

Michael was taking her to some fancy restaurant she'd never heard of, but Draco and her mum had assured her it was a very nice place. They would know; they made sure to eat at least one meal a week out of the house and anywhere expensive was game.

Scorpius frowned. "Since when are you dating again?"

"I was asked on a date, I'm going because he seems perfect and it'll make mum happy. I know I'm only nineteen, but I would like to settle down eventually, and to do that I'm going to need to date."

"I didn't ask for a life story," Scorpius snapped.

A sigh escaped Rose. Whatever he was doing while working for his grandfather was depriving him of sleep and making him irritable – well, more irritable than usual. Scorpius had started avoiding their daily breakfasts with their parents and, no one had complained because he was so miserable when he did show up that it was just easier to let him skip them.

Not wanting to start an argument, she ignored him. Maybe he'd just get bored of bothering her and go away.

No such luck. However, he didn't say anything, just watched her as she went to her closet and sat on her bed to put on her heels.

"You're going to have to move," she said, walking over and standing in front of him, waiting for him to step aside so she could go out of the door.

He gazed down at her from his greater height and gave her a long look that she couldn't read. After a moment of discomfort on Rose's part, he stepped aside and headed back to his room without saying anything. If he'd been trying to convey a silent message with that look, it hadn't gotten through to her.

Eyebrows furrowed in confusion, Rose headed off to meet Michael.

* * *

><p>"To be honest," he said, sipping his wine, "I was a little worried the daughter of war heroes would be stuck up and have a false sense of entitlement because her parents were famous."<p>

Rose blushed. "I'm glad I proved you wrong, maybe now you can tell all those other people who assume the same thing and don't give me the chance to prove them wrong like you're doing."

As always, she felt a slight pang at the mention of her absent father, but quickly forced it aside, assisted by another sip of her wine. Dates were not the time to let her daddy issues out for air.

They'd just finished a delicious meal that had been full of laughter and light flirting. Rose was having more fun than she'd had in a long time. Maybe her mum was right; maybe she should put herself out there more.

"I could say the same about a Healer you know," Rose said with a grin. "All that schooling can make someone think they're superior to everyone else."

"Maybe I'm just carefully concealing my contempt for the ignorant masses." The laughter in his eyes completely ruined the statement.

* * *

><p>When she got back to her room, Scorpius was stretched out on her bed, fast asleep. He was looking increasingly gaunt and pale the longer he worked with his grandfather. Draco had to live in an alternate universe if he still thought it was a good idea to send his son to that monster of a man. The work may have been keeping Scorpius from drinking, but it was weighing on him on a much deeper level; his soul.<p>

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she demanded, poking him in the shoulder. While she was sympathetic about his plight with his employment, she wasn't going to let him get away with more than usual.

"Waiting up for you," Scorpius said without opening his eyes. "Someone has to make sure you weren't on a date with a serial killer or something."

Rose crossed her arms and hoped he couldn't see that she'd had the same concern not too long ago. "I'd almost be touched if I wasn't sure you were lying. Why are you really here?"

He didn't bat an eye at her disbelief, which meant she'd been right.

"Your mother thinks that because you were on a date, I should find a nice girl and settle down, she's been subtly dropping hints since you left. This is one of the only rooms in the house where she wouldn't think to look for me." He cracked an eye open to check her reaction. "So do you have a second date, or did he realize what a mistake it was to ask a basket case like you out on a date?"

Rose whacked him. "Just get out of my bed, mum's probably asleep by now."

"I don't think I will. I'm comfortable here."

Instead of getting angry and fighting with him like he obviously wanted, Rose just rolled her eyes and took out her wand. She was in too good of a mood to let him get to her. A quick wave of her wand and he was levitated out of the room and into the hall. She sealed her door behind him with a spell.

Only one date and Michael was doing wonders for her stress levels.

* * *

><p>Being with Michael was like a fairytale. He was kind and attentive, loving and romantic. Over the next few months they went on several dates, and Rose started spending more and more time at his flat, much to the pleasure of her mum and the dismay of her still-single stepbrother.<p>

After a particularly long night of dancing well into the wee hours of the morning, Rose arrived back at the Manor just in time for breakfast.

"Rose!" Hermione exclaimed when she saw her daughter. "How was your night?"

Just over three months pregnant, Hermione was practically glowing. Her bump was beginning to show, making it harder and harder for them all to avoid talking about it.

Rose slid into the chair beside Scorpius, who was staring at his eggs with a sullen expression and didn't even spare her a glance as she came into the room. It was kind of rude, but she didn't expect much else from Scorpius. He was moodier than a preteen with her first period and Hermione's baby bump wasn't helping the situation.

"It was great; we were dancing until almost sunrise." She smiled at the memory. Rose had never been one to enjoy dancing, but Michael made it fun. She'd spent much of the night laughing as he twirled her and not once had he commented when she'd accidentally stepped on his toes.

Scorpius scoffed beside her, but she ignored it. He could be pessimistic about her relationship all he wanted. Just because none of them had worked out in the past didn't mean she was going to ruin this one the same way she had the others. Sleeping with Scorpius was nowhere in the cards for her ever again.

"That sounds lovely," Hermione smiled.

Rose had noticed that some of the worry lines around her mother's eyes had started to ease now that she was less stressed about their reaction to the baby. Rose's unhappiness must have been weighing more heavily on her mum than she'd thought.

"Don't forget to be home Thursday morning, that's when Hugo comes home for his spring holiday," Hermione reminded.

"Shouldn't you be headed to work, Scorpius?" Draco asked with an edge to his voice.

Glaring hatefully at his father, the blond stood from the table and walked out of the room, not bothering with a goodbye to anyone. It seemed to be becoming something of a habit with him lately.

"I'm not sure sending him to work with Lucius is doing him any good," Hermione said quietly to her husband. "He's looking awfully sick these days."

Draco waved off her concern. "It's probably just withdrawal from all the alcohol he doesn't have time to drink anymore."

"I don't think that's it," Rose said, knowing it wasn't her place, but unable to keep herself silent. Politely keeping herself out of the issue only went so far before she had to say something.

"I've made my decision and that's final. I don't want either of you interfering," Draco snapped, losing his temper.

Rose could tell from the way her mum's eyes flashed that there was about to be a row, so she slipped from the room before she was sucked into it. She just didn't feel like spending the next hour or so yelling.

Instead, she went to see Michael.

It was that night as they were curled together on the sofa at his flat that Michael uttered the eleven words that Rose had been dreading: when are you going to take me to meet your family?

Rose had tried to explain to him that meeting her family was a bad idea. The Weasleys alone had a tendency to scare people away with their prying and pranking, but it was Scorpius she was really concerned about. Rose didn't doubt for a second that Scorpius would do everything in his power to scare Michael off. The jerk would do anything to get on her nerves, and Rose was somehow certain that he would hate Michael on sight.

"You've already met my Uncle George, isn't that enough?" she asked evasively.

"You know that's not what I meant."

She shifted away from him and curled her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "You really don't want to meet my family. I mean, Malfoy Manor is terrifying, why would you want to go there?"

Michael looked at her evenly, appearing slightly disappointed that she wasn't willing to bring him to meet her family. What did he expect really? She'd made it clear that she wasn't entirely comfortable taking people to meet them and now, out of the blue, he wanted to go. She supposed that it wasn't really out of the blue, but it was still something she wasn't prepared for.

"You live there, how bad can it be?"

When she'd first moved into the Manor, Rose had been disturbed to live in the same place that Voldemort had once resided. However, she'd told her mum this and Hermione had reminded her that Tom Riddle had spent seven years living at Hogwarts, so the point was moot. Rose hadn't had much hope that her feeble argument would allow her to move back to her old room anyway. The Manor was creepy though. The corridors were dark and a lot of the rooms were slightly cold, but there was nothing actually scary about the building itself. It was the hundreds of years of housing Dark objects that had sunk into the very woodwork of the place, leaving it with a slightly eerie feeling.

Sometimes at night, Rose still hated being alone in the place, but they both knew that wasn't why she was hesitant to take Michael to the Manor.

"I'll take you," she sighed reluctantly, "but only on the condition that you promise not to let them scare you away."

Michael laughed, relieved that she had acquiesced. "Don't worry; it'll take more than your family to scare me away from you."

Rose wasn't so sure. "You haven't met them yet," she muttered.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**A/N: Hello readers! Isn't the weather nice? It is here anyway. It really makes the essays harder to write when the weather is summery outside. *sigh***

**Anyway, thanks to all the wonderful people who took the time to review! Also thanks to Adele for betaing!**

**~Frosty**

Rose stood by the front door wringing her hands. Michael was set to arrive in a few minutes and she wanted to be the one to open the door for him. She didn't want to even think about what would happen if Scorpius got to him first.

Unbidden, a horrible image of Scorpius sipping on a tumbler of Firewhiskey and casually sharing with Michael all the things Rose hoped Michael would never know. That wouldn't end well for any of the parties involved.

On some kind of moronic whim, Rose had decided that it would be a good idea to _not _warn Michael about Scorpius. It was a huge oversight on her part, like sending him into a warzone without a gun or any warning that there might be gunfire in the vicinity.

She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block out all the worst case scenarios that her brain was so helpfully supplying for her. It wasn't working. Her fear of Scorpius spewing her secrets was too deep-seated in her mind to be so easily dismissed.

As if summoned by her thoughts, Scorpius wandered down the stairs, a tumbler of Firewhiskey in his hand, just like she'd imagined. Merlin, it was an omen.

Immediately, she ran over to him and snatched the glass out of his hand. "What are you doing?" she hissed. Sober Scorpius was much less likely to spill things better left unsaid. If he was already starting to drink, then he would probably be three sheets to the wind by the end of the night.

"I'm going to get good and smashed tonight," he said with a smirk. He knew Michael was coming over and he knew she was torn up about the visit, and he _still_ thought it would be fun to see how far he could push her before she snapped.

"Why are you doing this to me?" she asked, her voice a quiet wail of despair. Fending off a drunken and clingy Scorpius was not what she wanted to do for the entire night on the first day she brought her boyfriend home to meet her family. Everyone would come away with the wrong idea.

Thankfully, Hugo rushed in from the kitchen. He had arrived from Hogwarts the previous day and had nearly suffered a stroke when he saw that their mum was pregnant. Much to the chagrin of the entire family, he had very loudly demanded if it "was really that difficult for them to just keep it in their pants."

That was Hugo though; too outspoken for anyone's good, much like their father had been. At seventeen, he thought he had everything figured out. Also like their father at that age, he was a tall redhead who had still yet to completely grow into his limbs. When he graduated from Hogwarts, he planned to become an Auror, just like his idol, their Uncle Harry.

Rose was sometimes jealous that her little brother was so completely put together while she was everywhere and clueless. He had a solid, reasonable plan for the future while she was still floundering.

"Mum says dinner's going to be ready in a few minutes," Hugo said. He frowned when he saw that Rose was holding a glass of alcohol. "Since when do you drink?"

Poor, innocent Hugo; he probably thought she was a virgin too.

"It's Scorpius'," she said. Glaring at the blond, she handed the glass to her brother. "Dump it for me, would you?"

Scorpius made to protest, but Rose stepped on his foot. Hard.

"I don't know what your problem is, but after spending the last few weeks sober, tonight is _not _the night you're going to start drinking again," Rose hissed at Scorpius, quietly enough that the retreating Hugo couldn't hear.

"Now, now Rosie," Scorpius said mockingly – he only ever called her Rosie when he was mocking her. "You're going to be a little busy tonight supervising that little boy toy of yours. I highly doubt you're going to have the time to watch me as well."

Sharply, Rose tilted her head up to examine his eyes at his odd tone. There was something there that there usually wasn't, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was.

"Boy toy's here," Scorpius said, looking towards the door and breaking the staring contest they'd been having. Immediately after he spoke, there was a knock on the door.

She had no idea how he'd managed to guess that Michael was outside, but Rose really didn't have time to question it. She was much too busy panicking to spare brainpower for anything else. Pushing aside her curiosity, Rose opened the door.

It was indeed Michael on the other side. He was looking around at the exterior of the house with a half awed, half intimidated expression. Rose knew that look; she'd worn it the first time she'd seen the Manor as well.

"You were right about how daunting this place is," Michael said, leaning in to kiss her cheek.

"I believe the word I used was terrifying." She smiled at his worried look. "Come on, dinner's ready."

The worry on his face only intensified at the thought of actually meeting the residents of the intimidating building. She was sorely tempted to remind him that it wasn't too late to turn around and go out for dinner, but she had a feeling he'd take that the wrong way.

Rose grabbed his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Don't worry, I'll protect you from the terrifying Malfoys," she whispered, unable to keep a small smile from her lips. He was so cute when he was worried her family were going to murder him. It would be even cuter if it wasn't a legitimate concern. One could never really tell with her family.

Everyone was already seated when they entered the kitchen hand in hand. Unfortunately, the only empty chairs were right beside Scorpius, meaning Rose was going to have to sit beside the blond devil because there was no way she was going to make Michael do it.

"It's nice to meet you," Hermione said with a smile and a wave of her hand to indicate the two empty seats.

Introductions were made and then they tucked into the meal Hermione had prepared.

When Rose saw Scorpius open his mouth, her fork paused halfway to her lips. The glint in his eye told her no one was going to like what he was about to say.

"So tell us, Mitchell, what's your fatal flaw?"

Rose kicked her annoying stepbrother under the table, but he didn't even flinch. She was going to have to work on kicking harder next time.

"It's Michael, and I'm not sure what you mean."

Just in case she needed to stop Scorpius from speaking, Rose switched her fork to her left hand. If a kick wasn't going to do the trick, maybe she could stab him with her fork. At the very least, the blood would distract everyone from whatever foul thing Scorpius said. Her mum gave her a pointed look when she noticed the cutlery manoeuvring, so Rose was forced to switch her fork back into the proper hand.

"I mean, no one's as perfect as Rose seems to think you are, so what's your fatal flaw?"

Blushing furiously, Rose tried elbowing the blond. "Stop it," she hissed.

Scorpius ignored her once again. He lazily – almost challengingly - dragged his gaze over everyone at the table before settling on the still-silent Michael. The poor man seemed at a loss for words.

"Let me guess: it's that you _care too much_," Scorpius said sarcastically.

"That's enough, Scorpius," Draco ordered, fixing his son an icy glare that would make most people freeze in their tracks.

Beside her, Rose could feel that Michael was tense from witnessing the exchange, probably having heard the threat in Draco's voice. People tended to forget that her stepfather was a former Death Eater and fully capable of doing harm until he got angry and unleashed his temper. Rose was betting that Michael had just been reminded.

Unfortunately, Scorpius was entirely unaffected. He'd been the subject of his father's anger for too long for it to instil the intended fear and obedience.

"I'm just trying to make sure he has my dearest stepsister's best interests at heart, Father," Scorpius said innocently.

Rose snorted; he had anything but her interests in mind. Luckily, everyone else at the table was too occupied by the silent battle of wills to notice her rude moment. She doubted anyone would care anyway, but Scorpius was guaranteed to say something if he thought it would get under her skin.

"_I_ will handle the interrogation," Draco said.

Hermione looked between father and son worriedly. "I wasn't aware that we neededan interrogation."

"If anyone should be grilling him, it should be _me_," Hugo spoke up, looking entirely too eager. "I'm her _real _brother."

"Stop it!" Rose snapped, ready to hit them all for being chauvinist idiots. They were acting like it was the eighteenth century and, as her male relatives, they were all personally responsible for protecting her virtue.

Michael put a calming hand on her knee, smiling at her. "Don't worry, Rose. They're just showing they care about you," he soothed.

_In a really twisted way_, Rose added in her head, finishing the thought he was no doubt too polite to voice. Maybe Draco and Hugo had spoken out of care, but Scorpius had spoken out of evil intent.

"Excellent, let's being then," Draco said. He narrowed his eyes at Michael, turning his face into a threatening mask in the blink of an eye. It was rather impressive, actually. "I'm starting this having a daughter thing a little late, but I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to threaten you with pain should you break her heart." He nodded to himself, seemingly satisfied with his speech so far. Warming to the topic, he leaned forward. "I can make you disappear, leaving nothing behind, not even a body. This doesn't mean that you'll be dead – that would be too good for you. No, you'd spend what feels like an eternity in excruciating agony, and eventually, people would stop looking for you. Before long, even memory of you would start to fade."

The entire speech was delivered in such a matter-of-fact way that there was no doubt her was serious. Hermione put a restraining hand on her husband's arm.

Michael paled. Rose felt sorry for him, but knew that nothing he could say would make him feel better.

Looking over at Hermione, Draco's face changed from menacing to that sickeningly loving look he frequently wore when speaking with his wife. "Was that sufficient?"

"It's best to leave the threats vague, you don't want them terrified of you because you've obviously put careful thought into killing them," she whispered to Draco, loud enough that everyone at the table could hear. "You were doing well until you got too detailed though."

Rose groaned quietly and put her head in her hand, cupping her forehead. "The lot of you are mortifying," she said to the tablecloth.

"Come now, stepsister dearest, we're not that bad," Scorpius said with false cheer. "Here, have some wine." He sloshed some of the wine Draco sometimes drank with dinner into her empty glass.

Glaring, Rose pushed the glass away from her. She was going to need all of her wits about her if the rest of their dinner was going to continue down the same lines it had begun.

"What's wrong? Worried you'll do something you'll regret if you drink?" Scorpius wheedled, pushing it back towards her.

Her eyes darted to him sharply, trying to give him a silent warning. He was blatantly hinting at something she didn't want anyone at the table to know about. Had he not been so set on ruining her night, Scorpius would know to keep his bloody mouth shut.

Michael didn't know why, but he, like everyone else, saw the glare she was directing at Scorpius. "I don't know about Rose, but I'd love a glass," Michael said carefully, taking the wineglass from Scorpius and pushing his pumpkin juice in front of Rose.

"So tell me Hugo, how's school going?" Michael asked. In a normal person, Rose would say they were just breaking the tension with banalities, but Michael seemed to genuinely want to know. He was that kind of person.

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry my family is so mortifying," Rose said as she walked Michael to the door after the dinner ordeal.<p>

Once Hugo had started talking about school, Scorpius had fallen silent and the rest of dinner passed without further incident. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. Michael was never going to want to be anywhere near her family again. She couldn't blame him really.

"Everyone's family has some issues," Michael tried to comfort her. At the eyebrow she raised, he amended his statement. "Okay, yours takes the issues to the extreme."

_You don't know the half of it_, Rose wanted to say.

"They're not so bad though," Michael continued. "I'm sure they meant well."

Draco meant well, but nothing Scorpius had done during dinner had been in anyone's interests but his own. He got off on ruining her relationships.

"You didn't eat much," Michael observed.

"Can you blame me?" Rose asked. Her stomach had been roiling the entire meal; she'd been sure something was going to go horribly wrong. Over the course of their short relationship, she'd become rather dependent on Michael and didn't want to lose him because her family scared him away. "You didn't do much more than nibble either."

Smiling apologetically, Michael took her hand. "How about we go back to my place and have a second dinner where we're both comfortable enough to eat?"

A rumbling from her stomach at the mention of food answered for her. "Let's get out of here," she agreed.

* * *

><p>It was the middle of the night and Rose was fast asleep in Michael's bed when a quiet tapping on the window woke her. Michael must have heard it too, because he groaned quietly and climbed from the bed, shuffling over to the window where the owl was waiting.<p>

She rolled over and closed her eyes again, falling back to sleep almost instantly. It wasn't her house, so it was really unlikely that the owl was for her.

"It's for you," Michael said quietly, poking her shoulder.

Dragging herself from the warm tendrils of sleep, Rose sat up and took the letter from him. She had to blink a few times before she could get her eyes to focus properly.

_Rose,_

_Scorpius said it would be a good idea to have some "brotherly bonding time" and, against my better judgement, I went along with it. Long story short, we've been arrested. Scorpius said you know what to do?_

_Hugo_

"I'm going to _kill_ him," Rose snarled, suddenly fully awake.

"What's wrong?" asked Michael, he looked a little disturbed by her sudden anger.

Rose paused in the process of pulling on her shirt. She knew this was an important moment in their relationship; should she tell him the truth or just take the easy road and lie to him. Lying was a slippery slope and she'd rather not go down it with Michael.

"My bloody step brother didn't succeed in ruining dinner completely, so he decided to corrupt my real brother," she said evasively. There, that wasn't a lie, but it didn't get into the whole messy story. Michael looked confused, but she pecked his cheek before he could voice his questions. "I have to go deal with this, I'll see you later."

She Apparated away, not giving him any room to even speak.

After a quick trip to the Manor to sneak into Scorpius' room and grab the bag he used to hold his Galleons, Rose apparated to the MLE offices.

"What are your policies for deaths in the holding cells?" she asked Patrick as soon as she walked into the waiting room she knew so well.

Patrick laughed. "Thinking of murdering your stepbrother for corrupting your little brother?"

"You know me so well," Rose said.

Visions of maiming Scorpius were dancing through her head. Scorpius was a menace, society would probably benefit from having him locked up for a while. If only there weren't those pesky laws getting in the way...

"You don't have to wait this time, I'm worried that brother of yours is going to have some sort of breakdown if I leave him in there too long," Patrick said, jerking his head towards the holding cells and leading the way.

Rose followed after him, still silently fuming as she fantasized about ways to murder Scorpius. At the moment, she was leaning towards strangulation with her bare hands, but tying him up and feeding him to lions had its merits as well. The former would be more satisfying, but the latter had more flare.

"What are they in there for?" Rose asked, dreading the answer.

Before answering, Patrick glanced at the ever-present clipboard. At least it wasn't something so memorable that he'd memorized it. "The usual, drunken, disorderly conduct. Scorpius managed to get himself caught urinating on a Ministry building, and your brother was mostly just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He got caught up in the scuffle when they brought Scorpius in."

Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Rose!" Hugo shouted as soon as he caught sight of his sister.

Patrick handed her both Hugo and Scorpius' wands and she passed him the bag of gold.

"That bag has more gold than triple our bail," Scorpius complained, having just woken up from the little nap he'd been taking on the bench. That seemed to be his standard reaction to being thrown in holding; take a little nap and wait for Rose to bail him out. His words were slurred, but he wasn't as drunk as normally, so that was a plus at least.

"Consider the money a donation, I want comfortable chairs in that waiting room if I have to come here again," Rose said firmly.

Patrick nodded, looking amused.

Scorpius looked like he was going to object again, but he stopped when Rose's attention snapped to him.

"You don't get to complain," she hissed so angrily that Hugo actually recoiled from the bars, looking shocked. He'd never seen her so worked up, so it wasn't a surprise he was startled. She could be as fierce as her mother when she wanted to, she just didn't usually have need to be.

Hiding a smile behind his clipboard, Patrick unlocked the door and stepped aside so they had room to exit.

Hugo rushed out of the cell as if he was afraid Patrick was going to slam the door shut and tell them he was just kidding. At a more sedate pace, Scorpius followed.

Rose managed to keep her silence while they walked out of the MLE offices and to an Apparation point, but the moment they were in front of the Manor gates she exploded.

"WHAT WERE YOU TWO THINKING?" she demanded, whipping around to face the two boys. "I LEAVE FOR ONE NIGHT AND YOU GET YOURSELVES-"

She stopped, startled, when Scorpius suddenly wrapped her into a bear hug, one that lifted her right off of her feet. Apparently he wasn't as sober as he seemed.

"I'm sorry, Rose," he said mournfully.

It was the worst thing he could have done in the situation. Had Rose finished her tirade, some of the anger would have bled out of her, leaving her less than murderously angry. By stopping the tirade, Scorpius was essentially putting a lid on a volcano, only intensifying her later reaction.

With a violent flick of her wand, she knocked her stepbrother unconscious, not caring that the spell she used was going to give him a nasty headache in the morning.

"What...?" Hugo asked, looking bewildered and much younger than his seventeen years.

Levitating Scorpius behind her, Rose started towards the house.

"Just go to bed," she said to her brother. "I'll yell at you in the morning."

She was going to have some words with Scorpius when he woke up. Her message would probably stick better if she yelled at him _before _he had a hangover potion.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**A/N: Hello readers! Thanks so much to the people who reviewed last chapter! Reviews are the most exciting part about posting something because I get to read what you guys think of my story. Please review?**

**Also! Thanks to Adele for betaing this!**

**Sorry for the double emails guys, I've been having a fight with . Apparently it doesn't want to show this chapter... I'm hoping this works and thanks for those who told me!  
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**~Frosty**

Rose allowed herself a slight lie-in before she stormed into Scorpius' room, making more noise than a small herd of elephants. It took finesse to make so much noise while walking, and she was glad to have perfected the skill. Unfortunately, the blond didn't wake up; he just continued lying peacefully in a tangle of blankets.

Well, she couldn't have that.

Whipping open his curtains to let in the bright sunlight, Rose stood by the side of his bed debating her next move. She was torn between dumping a bucket of cold water on him or, just conjuring the lions into his bedroom to see how long it took him to wake up with them gnawing on him. The lions were winning the debate when he groaned and rolled over, a pained look on his face as he blinked in the sunlight.

"Close the curtain," he croaked, hiding his head under a pillow.

Almost gleefully, Rose used her wand to whip all the pillows and blankets off of his bed, leaving him nowhere to hide from the bright rays. Conveniently, it also left him nowhere to hide from _her_.

"What did I ever do to deserve this punishment?" he groaned, rolling over to bury his face in the mattress, trying to block out the light.

"Well, let's see," Rose said loudly, "you tried your hardest to sabotage dinner, you tried to corrupt my little brother, and then you got the both of you _arrested_ before calling me away from my boyfriend in the middle of the night to come and bail you out!"

Feeling like he wasn't miserable enough, Rose whacked him in the back of his head. She didn't experience as much satisfaction as she'd been expecting when he groaned in pain; most of her anger had bled out of her. She should have yelled at him last night, when the rage was still fresh in her system.

She was just contemplating hexing the foul prick for good measure when a knock sounded at the door, drawing her attention away from her thoughts.

"Scorpius, do you have any hangover potion? I feel like there's a herd of hippogriffs stampeding through my head," Hugo said, coming into the room his hand over his eyes to protect them from the light. When he removed the hand, he was surprised to see his sister already there.

"What are you doing in here?" Hugo asked curiously. Thankfully, there was no suspicion in his voice or his expression.

"She's trying to _kill _me," Scorpius groaned, his face still buried in his mattress.

"You deserve it." Rose went to the bedside table and opened the drawer where she knew Scorpius kept his hangover potions. While he hadn't received the best grades in school, this was one potion that he could brew in his sleep. Once, worried he would fall in the cauldron and burn the house down, she had watched as he brewed a batch so drunk he could barely stand up.

She handed the potion to her brother, who was looking disturbingly grey. As soon as he'd drained the vial and regained some of the colour he'd lost, she started on him as well.

"What were you _thinking _letting _Scorpius _of all people take you out drinking?" she demanded, snatching the empty bottle from his hand and throwing it back in the drawer. If they weren't going to tell their mum, then she was going to have to scold her brother herself. _Someone _had to be the voice of reason for the two idiots.

"He seemed kind of down, asked me if I wanted to find something interesting to do," Hugo cast an apologetic look towards the prone figure on the bed, but Scorpius didn't appear to even be paying attention to them. He must have wandlessly summoned one of his pillows from the floor, because he was hiding his head under one.

"And you said no." Rose didn't even need to phrase it as a question, Hugo knew better than to do anything "interesting" with Scorpius, she was sure of it. Hugo had to remember what their stepbrother had been like in school and there was no reason for him to believe that anything had changed with the rebellious blond. "He had to coerce you into joining him with a guilt trip under the guise of 'brotherly bonding time'," she finished, not making Hugo say it.

His expression told her she'd hit the nail right on the head.

"You make it sound like I'm some sort of super villain," Scorpius complained from the bed. He stretched out a hand and blindly groped for his bedside table, searching for a hangover potion. He had probably decided that since they weren't going to leave so he could sleep more, then he should probably get rid of his hangover to better deal with the intruders in his bedroom.

"No, super villains have drive and goals, you're more like a black hole that sucks anyone near you into the void," Rose snapped.

Hugo looked appalled at her harsh words, but Scorpius merely chuckled. He had finally managed to get his hands on the potion he'd been reaching for and was looking much better. "You sure don't pull your punches."

"I'm not coming to get you next time – and don't even pretend there won't be a next time," Rose said as she walked out of the room. She felt like she'd said enough to keep Scorpius from trying to corrupt her brother again, so there was really no point in lingering there with him any longer. He was just begging to be hexed and she didn't want to try her temper by prolonging her exposure.

"You remembered to bribe the press this time, right?" Scorpius called after her.

Rose froze in her tracks, trying to remember if she'd owled the _Prophet _before going to the MLE offices. After a moment, she shrugged; there wasn't anything she could do about it now. She had probably remembered. Probably. Scorpius better hope she'd remembered, because her mum and probably his dad would kill him for getting Hugo arrested if they knew.

Hugo followed her out of the room. "Why are you so horrible to Scorpius?" he asked. "I know he can be annoying, but he's done nothing to deserve the way you treat him."

"Don't talk about things you don't understand," Rose said monotonously.

"Why did Scorpius tell me to send a letter to you and not mum or Draco?" Hugo asked, trying a different line of questioning.

"I've done it a few times," she muttered.

Hugo took a few quick steps, putting him in front of her and using his body to force her to stop her rush towards her bedroom. "What's going on with you, Rose? You used to be so happy before dad left," he said quietly, searching her face.

Rose blinked rapidly, trying to keep the tears at bay. "Nothing's been the same since dad left. People change, kids grow up, and no one stays happy forever."

One summer night just before Rose's fifth year, Ron hadn't come home from work. Without any warning or explanation, he had abandoned his family, the very people he was supposed to care for and support. They'd spent months thinking he was dead, but then Harry had come over to explain that he'd just seen Ron, and he had run off with his secretary. Apparently Ron had visited his friend, thinking everything would be the same between them despite his abandonment of his wife and children. Rose had never seen her Uncle Harry so infuriated, she could only imagine what her Aunt Ginny's reaction had been to her brother. From the singe marks Harry had worn during that visit, she assumed it had been epic.

She pushed past her brother and continued onto her room without looking back. Had she glanced towards him, she would have noticed the sad, pitying look on his face.

* * *

><p>Every time Michael stopped by to see her at the shop, her Uncle George got the most annoyingly smug look on his face. It was like he thought their relationship was solely due to his efforts and had nothing to do with either Rose or Michael. They were just pawns in George's little matchmaking game. If they were to break up, Rose was willing to bet that George would take it as a personal insult. His attitude annoyed Rose to no end, but then, a lot of things annoyed Rose of late.<p>

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Rose asked with a smile, standing on her toes to give Michael a quick kiss.

If it was physically possible to explode with smugness, George would be bursting at the seams. It was enough to make her want to shove Michael away from her – except that would hardly be fair to poor Michael.

"I have some bad news," Michael said, taking her hand and holding it between both of his. "There's been an outbreak of Dragon Pox in India and they need all the help they can get to control it. I'm going to have to leave for a few weeks."

At first, Rose felt an irrational wave of anger that he was _leaving_ her like that, but then she reminded herself that he was going to help people and she had no business keeping him from those who needed him much more than her. The anger quickly faded into a gnawing sense of unease that lodged itself firmly into her chest. She had a feeling it was going to be there for a while.

She gave him a sad smile to soothe some of the anxiety in his eyes. He obviously thought she wasn't going to be happy with him for going away. Did he really think so little of her? Never mind that her initial reaction _had _been anger, it had faded quickly as her logic had reasserted itself.

"I understand. I'll miss you horribly, but I understand."

* * *

><p>Rose woke up gasping and covered in a cold sweat, her heart pounding painfully against her ribcage.<p>

Most people dreamed of scary monsters or bad experiences, but when Rose had a nightmare it was just her, alone in an endless expanse of blackness, deserted by everyone she knew. To her, nothing was more horrible than that. Whenever she had one of those dreams, she couldn't stand to be alone.

The darkness that had seemed almost comforting in its velvety blackness when she had fallen asleep was a lot more menacing after her nightmare. It was too similar to what she'd just dreamed; a suffocating and empty expanse of nothingness. How did she know that everyone else in the house hadn't left sometime in the night?

She didn't. For all she knew, she was the only one left anywhere in the world.

That thought was enough to propel Rose out of her bed and down the hallway in a panicked dash.

Scorpius' room was just as dark as hers had been, and the even breaths she heard told her that Scorpius was deeply asleep. She felt better even being in the same room as another person, even if he was an arse most of the time.

Making her way over to the bed as quietly as possible, she sat on the edge, trying not to jostle him by moving too much. When his breathing hitched as she finally rested all of her weight on the mattress, she scrunched up her face. Crap, he was waking up.

Frozen, she waited for him to either wake up or for his breathing to even out once again, which would mean he had fallen back into his deep sleep. He did neither. Scorpius rolled over to the far side of the bed, away from where she was perched.

"You really need to get over your daddy issues," he groaned into the pillow.

Scorpius was under the impression that she had some serious abandonment issues from when her dad left her. He thought it made her clingy when she was feeling down. Rose insisted it was human nature to want company when feeling upset and that he had a heart of ice for not understanding that.

Despite his complaints, he never kicked her out of his bed when she needed company. She was of the opinion that he secretly enjoyed it when she stayed with him. The conversation wasn't the best, but he let her sleep there. _Just _sleep. She only ever shagged him when they were both drunk, and it had only happened the three times. Only enough to ruin every relationship she'd had - save for Michael.

"Shut up," Rose snapped. "If you really had a problem with me being here, you would have locked your door."

He mumbled something that sounded like, "I'm going to start locking it tomorrow."

She didn't pay him any mind; they both knew it was an empty threat.

"Why can't you just go see that boy toy of yours?" Scorpius asked after a moment.

Rose was on her back, staring blankly at the ceiling. "He's gone to India to help with a Dragon Pox outbreak."

The blond groaned again. "He's not leaving you Rose, he'll come back when he's done being annoyingly nice to everyone."

Not for the first time, Rose wondered how it was that Scorpius just knew these things without being told. It was like he was inside her head. She knew he wasn't a Legilimens, so he was doing it some other way. Perhaps just being as screwed up as she was gave him a unique perspective, or maybe she was more transparent than she thought.

"What if he doesn't?" she whispered as tears filled her eyes. She knew she was being unreasonable, but she needed Scorpius to tell her that.

How he got to her side of the bed without making any noise, she'd never know, but somehow he managed it. His arm snaked around her waist and then he dragged her into the middle of the bed and wrapped himself around her like a blanket of comfort.

"You're being an idiot. Shut up and go to sleep," he ordered.

Just as she knew they would, his harsh words made her feel better.

* * *

><p>Morning found them in the exact same position as they'd fallen asleep in, pressed together in the middle of the bed with Scorpius' arm flung over Rose's hip.<p>

"You can't keep doing that," Scorpius said upon waking and finding Rose in his bed.

"Doing what?" she asked with false innocence even as she pressed her head deeper into the fluffy pillow, hoping for a few more minutes of sleep. She'd spent too much time last night awake and terrified, she wasn't going to squander a few extra minutes of sleep after that.

Scorpius put some space between them and rolled her to face him, not wanting to have a conversation with the back of her head. As much as her hair entertained him, he wanted to see her face.

"You can't keep crawling into my bed when you have a nightmare. Tell that bloke of yours that if he's going to spontaneously leave like that, then he needs to bring you with him or something."

Rose's family had moved into Malfoy Manor when she was sixteen, still completely shattered about her dad having abandoned them. Her dreams had come almost every night back then, and more often than not, she'd ended up staying with Hugo in his room.

One night, she'd accidentally crawled into bed with Scorpius instead of her brother. Her muffled sobs had woke him up, and without thinking, he'd shown his softer side and comforted her, awkwardly patting her on the back until her tears had subsided.

From then on, Rose had gone to Scorpius instead of Hugo, who had never voiced his annoyance, but was starting to get tired of his sister crying all over his pillows almost every night. Oddly enough, their strange civility at night didn't stop them from constantly fighting during the day. It was like with the lights off, they had a truce, but the rest of the time it was survival of the fittest – or the snarkiest.

In the morning sunlight, Rose got a good look at Scorpius' chest, since he didn't wear a shirt to bed. She could see every one of his ribs. His face had been looking gaunt of late, but she hadn't been aware that he'd lost so much weight. He'd never been pudgy, but now he was almost skeletal.

"If we're going to talk about problems, are we going to discuss how you look like you haven't eaten anything since you started working with your grandfather?"

"My problems don't lead me into your bed," he said stiffly. It seemed only he was allowed to poke at her sore spots, the reverse wasn't permitted.

"They don't," she acknowledged, "but they _are _literally killing you, and I think that makes them worth mentioning."

He wouldn't look at her. He tried to roll over to avoid her gaze, but Rose was too fast. She leaped over him, straddling his stomach and grabbed his chin, making him look at her. They weren't going to get anywhere if he just kept staring at random objects around the room and pretending she wasn't saying anything.

"Scorpius, I'm worried about you, and we both know how serious it has to be for me to admit that."

She realized that her fingers were leaving deep indents in his chin where she was pressing too hard. Rose released her grip, and was pleased that he didn't try to turn away again.

"I can handle it."

"I can see that," she said dryly. "Any thinner and your internal organs are going to start poking out."

He tried to shrug, but their position didn't really allow for that type of moment. "I haven't had much of an appetite."

Without either of them noticing, his hands had drifted to rest on her hips, fingertips slipping under the hem of her shirt to rub against the soft skin there.

"Stop that," Rose said when she finally noticed. She jumped off of him and hopped down from the bed. "This never happened, but you better eat something at breakfast, appetite or no."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**A/N: Hello readers! I should be studying an exam right now, yet here I am updating...**

**Sorry about the screw up with the posting of the last chapter, I have no idea what happened. I'm hoping this one will work fine on the first try.**

**Also! A huge thanks to all the people who reviewed the last chapter! I was starting to think you guys didn't really like this story. Thanks to Adele too, she betaed this chapter.**

**~Frosty**

"What's wrong, Rose?" Hermione asked when her daughter came down for breakfast. She only had to glance at her to know that something wasn't right with her. Rose always got those little lines between her eyebrows when something was eating at her.

Rose sighed. "Michael got called to help with the Dragon Pox epidemic."

Forlornly, she started picking at the fruit salad she'd pulled towards her. Hermione had already had the food all ready on the table, waiting for her family to come and eat it.

"He's such a good man," Hermione said with a smile. Anyone who helped the helpless was okay in her book.

Draco had been called into work early, and Scorpius had yet to come down from his room, so it was just Hermione and Rose at the breakfast table. Despite looking up to her mum and loving her to pieces, Rose really couldn't hold a conversation with the woman. Everything always came out sounding awkward and stilted. Part of it was because Hermione disapproved of Rose's lack of direction in life, but it was the unspoken, unresolved issue between them that was tearing them apart.

Rose had heard the fight between her parents that was the starting of all their problems. Her dad's complaint had been that he and her mum had been content _until they had children_. Essentially, he believed that everything wrong in his life had started when Rose was born.

Rose couldn't bear that her dad felt that way, but far worse was the fear that her mum secretly thought the same thing. If one of her parents believed that, was it really that much of a leap that the other shared those thoughts?

Maybe there was something wrong with her.

The human mind is a strange thing. Rose could both know the notion that her mum resented her was ridiculous, while at the same time fearing it was true.

"Wonderful man, kissing babies, saving the elderly and such," Scorpius said, coming into the room with his cruel facade firmly in place. He must have heard Hermione's comment about Michael. Something about Michael's kindness personally offended Scorpius.

Hermione gave him a frown for the sarcastic comment, but didn't take her disapproval any further. She was well used to Scorpius' scathing remarks; he got the tendency from his father. No amount of scolding was capable of keeping the snark out of a Malfoy.

When Scorpius selected a single piece of toast and nibbled on it, completely ignoring the eggs and bacon on the table, Rose elbowed him. He raised an eyebrow at her, managing a whole spectrum of messages with that one movement.

Subtly, Rose shifted her eyes to the large bowl of scrambled eggs in the middle of the table, reminding him he needed to eat more. He could forgo the bacon, it was mostly salt and fat anyway, but he had to at least eat some of the eggs.

Scorpius scooped a large pile of the fluffy yellow mush onto his plate, scowling at it like it had done him a personal offense. He wasn't hungry, but it was easier to just eat the eggs than it would be to argue with Rose about it.

"Your silence is almost companionable. If I didn't know better, I'd say you two were getting along," Hermione said, looking between the two.

Rolling his eyes, Scorpius glanced at Rose. "Your hair looks ridiculous. Like someone set a patch of caterpillars on fire."

Hermione snorted into her coffee while Rose only raised her eyebrows. "That was pathetic."

"It's early," he complained. When Rose's expectant look didn't fade, he sighed and tried again. "You've got something horrific smeared on you."

Raising his hand, he gestured to all of her. "Oh wait, that's just you."

"What are you, five?" Rose said absently. She was more focused on the hand he'd waved at her. Lightning fast, she reached out and grabbed his hand, flipping it so that she could see the underside again.

In the middle of his pale palm were three black dots arranged into a triangle. It looked like some kind of tattoo. The skin felt the same as the rest, it wasn't raised or anything, but it was completely black.

"Is that a tattoo?" Rose asked, wondering when he'd gotten it and why he'd chosen something so silly to have permanently etched onto his skin. She would have thought he'd have more sense than to get something so pointless if it was going to stay with him forever, especially considering his father's aversion to any skin markings. Draco didn't even like them to mention tattoos around him, much less _get _one. Rose could only assume it was an ex Death Eater thing.

"No." Scorpius said, not giving her anymore information.

Hermione looked at it closely from the other side of the table. "I feel like I've seen that somewhere before..." She tapped a finger against the side of her coffee mug as she thought.

"We're not talking about this," Scorpius said. He moved to get up from the table without having touched any of the food on his plate.

He hadn't eaten more than half a piece of toast while he'd been at the table, and if he thought it was going to escape her notice, he had another thing coming. Rose had been keeping track and knew he'd yet to eat any of the eggs. Grabbing a handful of his shirt, she pulled him back down, pointedly taking a bite of her own breakfast.

The blond actually _growled _at her, but he didn't leave, taking several rapid bites of the eggs and swallowing. If his expression was any indication, he enjoyed them about as much as he would mouthfuls of sawdust.

"If you don't like the food, I can make you something else," Hermione offered, having noticed his distaste.

Shoving the last few bites into his mouth, he shook his head, wincing as he swallowed. "I have to go to work," he said, using his eyes to wordlessly tell Rose she no longer had any reason to make him stay at the table. He didn't wait for her response, standing and leaving the room before either of them tried to make him bring a bagged lunch with him.

Moodily, Rose took a bite of bacon, still thinking of Scorpius' horrible job. She glanced at her mum and saw that the other woman was giving her a strange look.

"What?" Rose asked.

"I thought I saw something there on his hand a few days ago, so I tried to grab it to see just as you just did. The only difference is that he _let _you grab him, but very nearly hexed me," Hermione said. She didn't seem angry, just contemplative, which was worse. "And don't think I missed that you didn't let him leave until he ate something."

Briefly, Rose weighed the pros and cons of telling her mum how miserable Scorpius was at his job. He'd probably never forgive her for blabbing, but that wouldn't matter if he didn't have to go back to that horrible place that was eating away at him. If he kept on with his current route, he'd waste away before the year was out. Besides, asking her mum for help before she'd given it her best shot felt like cheating. Rose may be a screw-up, but she wasn't a cheater.

Decision made, Rose shrugged, brushing off her mother's inquisitive expression. "He's been losing weight. I figured it would look bad if he just wasted away right under our noses. People have expectations of us and it would be such a shame to shatter them."

Hermione nodded, looking after him sadly. "I feel sorry for the boy, his mother is just a horrible person and it's damaged him. I've tried to talk to him but..." she trailed off and shook her head.

Rose knew exactly what her mum was saying; if Scorpius didn't want to talk about something, nothing could get information out of him. This frustrated Rose to no end, a feeling she was sure her mum shared at the moment.

Finished her breakfast, Rose grabbed her plate and crossed the kitchen. Throughout her childhood, Hermione had always insisted they clear their plates without magic. Apparently there was a sense of satisfaction to be had when someone used their own two hands to complete a task instead of using magic as a shortcut.

"I have to go to work," Rose said, still facing the sink. She knew mentioning where she worked would bring a scowl to her mother's face, but she wanted to explain why she wasn't going to sit at the table with her while Hermione finished her own breakfast. Rose hated just leaving her there eating by herself.

For several years after the war, her dad had worked at Uncle George's joke shop. Rose suspected that her mum thought she was following in his footsteps because she worked there as well.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

Rose wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life. Why invest all kinds of time into a career when she hadn't even decided which career she wanted? It just didn't make sense to her.

"Rose..."

Uh oh. That was not an "I have wonderful news and can't wait to share it with you" tone. Nothing good ever followed when Hermione said her name like that.

"What?" she asked, ready for horrible news.

"I don't think you should work there anymore." Hermione's hesitance was gone and her statement was firm. Most normal people would cave under the stern stare of Hermione Granger, war hero. Rose was not most people, and she had been subjected to that expression many times in her life. Much like Scorpius' immunity to his father's glare, Rose Had long since shed the vulnerability that left others open to the ill effects of Hermione's stare.

"I'm not quitting."

Hermione looked increasingly uncomfortable, but her voice was certain. "You don't have to. I talked to George, and you no longer have a job there."

For a few beats, there was complete silence ass Rose's disbelieving brain adjusted to the new information. It kept skipping, thinking something was wrong with the input it had just received. Rose just couldn't believe that her mother had _done _something like that.

When Hermione didn't suddenly smile and say "just kidding," Rose realized that she was serious.

"You got me fired?" she asked, her voice completely flat with disbelief. It wasn't anything fancy, but she _liked _her job, and her mum had no business going behind her back and getting her fired.

"Why?" Rose asked. More than one question was jammed into that single word.

"I'm your mother and I know what's best for you. I've arranged a few interviews for you at the Ministry tomorrow; we'll find another job you like just as much."

Blinking at Hermione's complete dismissal of her anger, Rose glared. She could feel her cheeks getting increasingly red.

"I can't believe you'd do that!" she snapped.

Hermione put a hand on her daughter's arm, but Rose angrily shook it off. "Rose, there are things you don't know- where are you going?"

Not willing to let her mum interfere with her life, Rose ran out of the Manor and down the drive. She Apparated to Diagon Alley, knowing her pregnant mother wouldn't be able to catch her. She was going to give George a piece of her mind for letting her mum dictate _her _employment and then demand her job back.

Distraught and furious, she overshot the Apparition point and landed among the crowds of people shopping, knocking someone down as she appeared on top of them. Rose barely noticed and didn't glance towards the bloke, scrambling off of him with a quick apology thrown over her shoulder.

Her run was stopped almost immediately by a hand around her wrist.

"When you nearly crush someone with your fat arse, it's polite to at least make sure they're okay before running off," drawled a voice behind her.

The breeze shifted, giving her a whiff of stale smoke and something else that made her think of nights spent bundled up in warm blankets. Of course it was Scorpius. She didn't have _time _for this right now.

Rose turned around, really not in the mood for distractions. She was on a mission.

"Scorpius, not right now." She tried to shake his hand off, but he held firm.

"What's got you so worked up?"

"My mum got me fired. I'm going to talk to Uncle George."

She shook her wrist again, hoping that he'd release her now that he had his answers. No such luck. He seemed to be debating something.

"I'm coming with you."

Rose thought about arguing, but decided that it was easier to just ignore him. It didn't really matter whether he was there or not anyway.

When they arrived at the store, Scorpius looked around curiously at the loud and colourful interior. He could count on one hand the number of times he'd set foot inside the joke store. There were just so many things to _see_, but after a cursory glance around at everything, his attention was drawn back to Rose as she stormed up to her uncle. Said uncle looked shocked and worried at her presence.

"Rose, what are you doing here?" George asked, glancing towards the door to the stockroom for some reason.

Standing herself up to her full height, Rose stared her uncle in the eye. Her head was tilted back at a slightly uncomfortable angle because he was considerably taller than her, but she liked to think she presented an intimidating figure. She could feel Scorpius lingering somewhere off behind her left shoulder and, for some strange reason, it made her braver just knowing he was there.

"Why would you listen to my mum and just fire me like that?" she demanded.

When she felt a hand on the small of her back, she turned, looking questioningly at Scorpius. He wouldn't interrupt what was sure to be an amusing show as she yelled at someone other than him if he didn't have a good reason.

The blond was staring fixedly at something, looking like he'd seen a ghost. Rose turned, wondering what would make him look like that.

Much like earlier, Rose's poor brain just couldn't compute what her senses were telling her. If she didn't know better, she'd swear her dad had just come out of the stockroom wearing the orange apron of shop employees. But that was impossible.

"Rose, get away from him!" the man that couldn't be her dad snapped upon noticing her and her proximity to a Malfoy.

She turned her back on the man that had done the same to his family years ago.

"You gave my job to _him_?" she asked her uncle in disbelief. It was bad enough that they'd taken her job without bothering to inform her, but to give it to the one person in the world she hated more than anything?

Her hands were shaking with fury and she couldn't remember a time when she'd experienced so much and such intense rage. It felt like the situation was rapidly spinning out of control.

"Your mum heard he was back and staying with me, and she said I was going to have to find someone else to work in the shop because she refused to let you anywhere near him," George said apologetically.

The entire Weasley family had sympathised with Hermione and her children when Ron left them, but for the same reason they had accepted the Malfoys into their fold, they welcomed Ron back. They were too nice for their own good.

Family gatherings were about to get a lot more uncomfortable.

She knew Ron was moving closer because she felt Scorpius step up behind her, leaving barely a breadth of space between them. Whether Scorpius had moved for his own safety or hers, she wasn't sure; whatever his reasoning, Scorpius' movement only served to further incite her father.

"I told you to get away from him!" Ron said, storming over and grabbing Rose's arm. He yanked her away from Scorpius.

For the second time in less than twenty minutes, Rose found herself being restrained by a hand on her wrist. The difference was that when Scorpius had done it, he hadn't been squeezing hard enough to leave a bruise.

"Let me go!" she snarled, struggling against his hold.

It wasn't logical, but she was panicking. Ron had been gone so long and she felt like she didn't know him anymore. He was just some stranger who was unreasonably angry with her because she had been in public with her _stepbrother_.

Wand completely forgotten, Rose tried to twist out of his grip, only succeeding in injuring her wrist further.

"Let her go," Scorpius said behind her, his sentiments echoed by George, only a step behind the blond.

"Don't you say anything, _Malfoy_. I don't know what you're doing near my daughter, but I know you're up to no good!"

"He's my _stepbrother_, he has every right to stand near me, as opposed to you, who are as good as dead to me," Rose said.

Scorpius, fed up with the entire situation, wrapped an arm around Rose, pulled her against him, and punched Ron in the jaw all in one quick movement.

While Rose turned her face against Scorpius' chest so she could try to block out the entire situation, Ron fell to the ground, unconscious.

"I didn't know you had it in you, kid," George said approvingly as he bent down by Ron to make sure his brother was okay.

Not caring who was watching, Rose clung to Scorpius, shaking. His scent was familiar and comforting; she wasn't going to forsake his soothing warmth just for the sake of propriety. Later, she'd probably chide herself for pulling such a girly move, but she could care less at the moment.

Scorpius, just as shocked by recent events as Rose, absently wrapped his arms around her. His eyes were large and fixed on the unconscious figure on the ground. When he'd thrown the punch, his only thought had been to get Rose away from the maniac and make him stop saying those infuriating things, he hadn't been thinking about the repercussions of a Malfoy knocking out a war hero.

Reformed or not, the Malfoys still struggled with their public image. The press was going to have a field day with the story.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**A/N: Here's the next chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to Adele for going over this for me! I'll stop abusing the exclamation point now... On with the chapter.**

**~Frosty**

Satisfied that Ron was going to be okay, save for an impressive black eye, George turned his attention back to his niece, who was shaking like a leaf in the least likely pair of arms – or so George thought.

Scorpius wasn't paying any attention to what he was doing, yet he was stroking Rose's lower back in soothing circles as if comforting her was the most natural thing in the world.

Curious.

George filed the information away for further investigation. He had a feeling their usual animosity was more for show than anything if this is how they acted when they weren't thinking about it.

Pretending he hadn't seen anything, George grabbed his brother under the arms and dragged him into the back of the shop. It would be a shame to lose customers because the children were scared of the unconscious idiot in the store. Plus he had the feeling those two would need a minute, Rose to compose herself and Scorpius to help.

* * *

><p>Gradually, Rose's trembling subsided and she was able to pull away from Scorpius. She still kept close to him, needing his solidarity. Oddly enough, his behaviour wasn't something she would have expected of him. It seemed that she didn't have quite as clear a picture of his personality as she had assumed. Whatever the change, she liked this Scorpius, especially when he was there to help keep together the scattered bits that were her emotions at the moment.<p>

"Thanks for that," she said uncomfortably.

"Don't mention it," Scorpius muttered, shaking out his bruised knuckles. "Really, don't mention it. I have a feeling your mum might be upset with me for knocking out her ex, and father will be unimpressed with me for undoing all the work he's put into dragging the Malfoy name out of the dirt."

Ah, there was the Scorpius she knew so well, always thinking about other people... and how to avoid their wrath once he'd inevitably incurred it.

George came out from the back room then, dusting off his hands on his apron. "Now that that bit of unpleasantness is over, are you all right?" he asked Rose.

Rose nodded, looking lost. "Why is he back?" she whispered.

Hearing how young and pathetic she sounded, Rose frowned slightly. She was stronger than that, damn it.

"He hasn't said. I'm assuming it didn't work out with that woman of his, and now he's come back with some stupid notion of remaking his family now that he's done running from his responsibilities," George said. He'd been giving it a lot of thought since Ron had shown up on his doorstep a few days ago in need of a place to stay.

"Not happening." Rose's voice was so vehement that both men could tell she'd literally fight tooth and nail to keep Ron away from her in the future. George felt a little rush of pride that she refused to let Ron and his idiocy get to her too much. He thanked Merlin that there was much more of Hermione in the girl than his idiot of a brother.

"I'll keep him away from you as best I can, but there's only so much I can do." George looked sympathetically at his favourite niece as she cradled her injured hand against her chest looking like an abandoned porcelain doll, alone and helpless.

George looked to Scorpius. "Take her home, mate," he suggested.

Scorpius nodded, putting his hand on Rose's back to guide her out of the store. They were lucky it was lunchtime and everyone was eating, they wouldn't have to deal with the press unless Ron went and told them what had happened – which was possible considering the complete lack of morals or common sense he'd displayed in the past.

* * *

><p>The moment Hermione caught sight of her daughter, she rushed to wrap her in a hug so tight that the poor girl squeaked. From the moment she'd mentioned that Rose didn't have a job anymore, she'd known that nothing good was going to happen. That determined look had been on Rose's face, the one that was always getting the girl into trouble. Hermione had been pacing in front of the door, waiting for her daughter to return. If she had been allowed to Apparate in her condition, she would have followed after her.<p>

"Are you all right?" Hermione asked, still squeezing Rose. She shot a confused look at Scorpius, who was standing awkwardly off to the side. He was supposed to be at work, somewhere that shouldn't have allowed his and Rose's paths to cross.

"I'm fine. Why didn't you tell me that dad was back?" Before her mother crushed her injured wrist any further, Rose pulled away from the hug. She didn't think anything was broken, but the extra pressure hadn't been helping with her pain levels.

Finally starting to notice how much her wrist hurt, Rose tried flexing it. There was a bruise encircling her entire wrist and the joint was starting to swell. It was probably sprained, or at least twisted. She probably shouldn't have struggled so fiercely, it had only done her damage.

"I only found out yesterday, I've been trying to find a way to tell you, but I couldn't..." Face twisted into a pained grimace, Hermione's eyes begged for forgiveness. "What did he do?" she asked, almost fearfully. She knew her daughter, and that look in Rose's eyes meant she was deeply shaken. Something horrible must have happened.

"He grabbed her," Scorpius said, a scowl on his face at the memory. The stinging in his knuckles was making it impossible to forget the look of terror Rose had worn.

Reminded once again of the blond's unexplained presence, Hermione glanced at him. "What do you mean? Ron's a selfish idiot, but he wouldn't hurt her."

"He's hurt her more than you know," he said cryptically. At Rose's frantic look, he amended the statement. "Check her wrist if you don't believe me."

Said wrist was still cradled against Rose's chest, but she reluctantly pulled back her sleeve for her mum to see. It looked even worse than it felt, and the pain seemed to move up her arm with every beat of her heart, making the entire limb ache. She'd been injured before, even broken bones, but none of her previous injuries had ever left her feeling so completely battered. She suspected it was the emotional damage that made all the difference.

Hermione gasped when she saw the extent of the damage. "I don't know what he was thinking doing this to you. I'm going-"

"He was thinking that she shouldn't be standing next to me," Scorpius said, interrupting Hermione's tirade.

Sudden comprehension dawned on Hermione and she tiredly rubbed a hand over her face. Ron truly needed to grow up, this was getting ridiculous.

"Give me your arm Rose, I'll heal you," was all she said. Fixing her daughter's injury was more important than dealing with her ex husband at the moment.

Rose sighed in relief when the hot, angry pain faded under the soothing balm of her mum's magic. The difference was amazing and the lack of pain allowed her to think properly again. The remainder of her frantic panic faded away as she healed.

With a small smile, Rose flexed her hand, gland to be able to move it again without pain. There was still a ring of bruising around it still, but it was the faded yellow-green of a nearly healed injury.

"I can't believe he'd grab you so hard that it would sprain your wrist," Hermione said. The spell had told her the extent of the damage when it healed Rose, only serving to further upset the brunette. She'd hated Ron for what he'd done, but that was nothing compared to what she now felt towards him. Any chance of re-forging even a small portion of the friendship they'd once shared was completely dead.

"Probably would have done more damage if Scorpius hadn't stopped him," Rose muttered. She looked over her shoulder for the blond, but he had left while they hadn't been paying attention. That was fine; she'd find him later and thank him properly for being there for her.

"How did he do that?"

"Punched him."

"Scorpius punched..." Hermione echoed. She knew something was going on with the children and she was going to get to the bottom of it. She had a niggling idea in the back of her head, but it was absurd. Completely impossible.

She regarded Rose steadily, debating how to word her next question. She couldn't just start throwing around accusations. Her problem was that while she loved him as if he was her own son, Scorpius was... prickly at the best of times. He didn't just defend people without question, there had to be something else going on there. And for him to defend _Rose _of all people, someone he didn't seem to even _like _most of the time...

Stumped as to how to phrase her inquiry so that she avoided suspicion, Hermione shrugged imperceptibly. Might as well just ask and see if she could clear up her confusion first.

"Rose... Does Scorpius have a girlfriend?" Hermione asked. If her stepson had a girlfriend, then she would know her ridiculous suspicions were just that – ridiculous. The senseless imaginary constructs of a hormonal pregnant woman. Yes, that had to be what it was.

Too emotionally exhausted to even wonder about the strange question, Rose answered with the truth. "Scorpius doesn't have girlfriends, he has one night stands he can barely remember the next morning."

She would know; she'd been one of those one night stands... three times. Not that her mother needed to know that.

Hermione shook off her concern; it was impossible that there was something between Rose and Scorpius. Besides, Rose was very happy with Michael, she wouldn't betray someone so kind and caring just to be one of Scorpius' "one night stands".

Comforted by that thought, Hermione wrapped an arm around her daughter's shoulders. "Come on, let's get us some chick flicks and comfort food. We'll have a day of wasting time," she said. Rubbing her hand over her rounded stomach, she added, "I've been craving cupcakes and peanut butter, we'll have some of those as well I think."

* * *

><p>Draco came home to find Hermione and Rose curled up on the sofa together, both of them in front of the television Hermione had insisted they buy when she'd moved into the Manor. Both women had tears in their eyes as they watched <em>Titanic<em> and what he knew to be their comfiest pyjamas.

"What's going on here?" he demanded.

Sniffling, Hermione tried to wipe her tears away and gave her husband a weak smile. "Ron's back and he assaulted Rose. We're having a relaxing day after all that excitement."

Only the slight flaring of his eyes gave away the surprise Draco felt. In a rare show of concern, he went to his stepdaughter and looked her over. "Are you okay?"

Rose shook her head. "No, but I'm not injured."

Draco nodded and slid into the seat beside Hermione, pulling her against him. "Do you want me to have him disposed of?" he asked.

He flinched when Hermione whacked his chest.

"I was kidding."

Hermione snuggled against him. "No you weren't. I appreciate the thought, but you can't just have people killed when you don't like them."

A dark look made its way onto Draco's face. "I will if they threaten my family."

Rose stood from the sofa. "I'm going to bed," she said, not wanting to sit there while her mum and stepdad argued about what reasons would justify having someone killed. Though where her father was concerned, it was tempting...

Once in her bed, she curled into a ball around her previously injured wrist and cried.

When Ron had first left, she'd thought it was one big joke, and that he'd eventually return, have a row with her mum and then everything would go back to the way it had been before – the way it was supposed to be. As the years passed and she'd realized that he wasn't coming back, and then discovered that she didn't _want _him back. Rose had shut off a part of herself to deal with the loss.

The resulting abandonment issues she had were the only thing she thought he'd damaged, but his return had revealed that there was more to it than that. The man who had lovingly bounced her on his knee and chased away the monsters under her bed when she was a child had decided that she wasn't worth his time anymore, that some mistress was more important than his family.

Her damage went much deeper than mere abandonment issues.

She stayed curled in a ball until her tears had run out and she fell into a fitful sleep.

* * *

><p>Scorpius wasn't surprised when Rose crawled into his bed that night. The haunted look in her eyes that had begun to fade in recent years was back in full force with the return of her father.<p>

For that reason alone, Scorpius would happily take another shot at the man, possibly with his wand next time. He could do so much more damage with his wand than with his fists. Not to mention there would be none of the pain in his hand from throwing a hex. His knuckles were bruised and there was more swelling than he thought was normal. Scorpius was no expert, but he was pretty sure that Ronald Weasley had a harder head than the average person.

Briefly, he wondered when it was that Rose Weasley had become one of the _very _few people that he actually concerned himself over. It had been such a gradual thing that he hadn't even noticed it happening, but somehow, it had.

He was awake, lying on his back and staring at the shadow obscured ceiling when his door opened and Rose slipped inside the room. Well familiar with the way, she easily navigated the dark room and crawled into bed beside him.

Scorpius didn't bother mentioning that he was awake. If she wanted him to keep her company, she'd make the desire known, probably by poking him with her sharp nails until she'd elicited a response. Why she did that, he'd never know. It didn't exactly put him in the mood for talking, or anything other than kicking her out of his bed and going back to sleep.

Apparently, just crawling into bed with him and falling asleep was something the Rose of the past did. This Rose, the one who had recently seen her dad again, was infinitely worse than she'd been only last week.

His guess that she would be the one to break the distance between them was proven correct when she rolled towards him and reached out to take his hand.

The smaller fingers in his were cold, chilled by her distress and the cool air of the room. It was hard to tell himself that her problems were none of his business when he could feel her shaking like a leaf right beside him. As disturbing as it was, he didn't want her so distraught – at least not when he had to witness it firsthand and probably not even if she hadn't been pestering him.

Her hand squeezed his, searching for more comfort. Unfortunately, she was holding the hand he'd used to punch her father and he winced at the pressure. Scorpius was pretty sure he'd broken one of the smaller bones in his hand on Ron's hard jaw. He wasn't exactly adept at Muggle forms of duelling.

"Did you hurt your hand?" she asked quietly. It sounded like she was almost afraid to disturb the darkness around them. She probably feared he'd send her back to her room – not that he ever had in the past, she was just the type to worry about that kind of thing when feeling vulnerable.

"I think I may have broken something," he responded, nearly as quiet.

Almost before he had finished the sentence, Rose was on her knees, his hand cradled in her lap while she examined it by the light of her newly-lit wand.

Guilt washed over her when she saw that his knuckles were swollen, and the larger one was purplish and painful-looking. If only she'd been quicker to draw her wand against her father, Scorpius wouldn't have been forced to intervene.

Quickly, before he could brace himself for the pain and tense up, which would only make it worse, she cast a healing charm that snapped the bone back together and mended it. The sound of the bones clicking back together made her shiver in revulsion, but they couldn't heal unless the two pieces were aligned.

Scorpius winced violently, tearing his hand from her grasp he looked at her with wounded accusation before he recovered from the shock and smothered the expression.

"Sorry," Rose said quietly. There was something off about Scorpius, something making him jumpy. She suspected it was something beyond the horrible job he was being forced to do. He was thrown off balance on a very deep level, and Rose didn't believe just working with dark objects would do that to a person. She didn't push him, knowing he would tell her in his own time if she was patient.

Her mind taken off of the nightmare that had brought her to his room, Rose was able to settle back against the pillows more comfortably, no longer trembling. She tugged the blankets over her, snuggling under their warmth.

"Scorpius?" she asked when she was almost asleep.

He had returned to his earlier position of lying on his back and staring towards the ceiling after he'd recovered from the shock of her healing of his hand.

"Mmm?" he hummed.

"Why were you in Diagon Alley today?"

"I was in Knockturn Alley picking up a package for grandfather, I was just passing through Diagon Alley. I _may _have been picking up a lunch there so I wouldn't have to listen to you nagging."

For the first time since she'd set her eyes on Ron earlier that day, Rose smiled. It was nice to know that he actually listened, that he didn't just humour her while she was there and then go right back to the destructive behaviour once he was away from her reminders.

Wiggling closer to him, she pecked his cheek. "Thank you for helping me today, that could have been ugly if you hadn't stepped in."

That said, she rolled back to her side of the bed and went to sleep, her back to the blond.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**A/N: Hello readers! I most likely haven't responded to the reviews I intended to... At this point, I have three pages of emails from just and I'm honestly a little intimidated. I'll get to it though! In the meantime, here's the next chapter. Thanks to Adele for betaing and to all the lovely people who took the time to review!**

**~Frosty**

Rose opened her eyes and met an emerald green stare.

Squeaking in shock, she scurried backwards, bumping into Scorpius where he was sleeping on the other side of the bed. She landed half on top of him, her heart pounding furiously. One day, the poor thing was going to burst from all the stress she had it under.

Scorpius tried to cover her mouth with his hand, plopping it in the general direction of her squeak. His palm ended up over her nose and fingers were spread over her entire face. "Shhh," he said, obviously still nearly asleep, "More sleep."

Rose elbowed him while Albus started laughing. Combined, these two things jolted Scorpius fully awake, and he wasn't happy about it.

"What the hell are _you _doing here?" he demanded, glaring accusingly at Albus while he rubbed his side. Rose had unnaturally pointy elbows and she knew how to use them to cause maximum damage.

The last anyone in the family had heard of the younger Potter boy, he'd been playing professional Quidditch in Australia, so Scorpius was having trouble making sense of the annoying gnat's presence at his bedside so early in the morning. He couldn't deal with the middle Potter while fully awake and in a good mood, much less before he'd even opened his eyes properly.

Albus shoved Rose over and settled on the bed beside his cousin, not caring that the prickly blond looked ready to start hexing.

"Funny you should ask," Albus said cheerily. "Hugo wrote me a very interesting letter telling me about his little adventure with his step brother and that his sister bailed him out without batting an eye." He grinned at the two. "Or were you wondering how I knew to check Scorpius' room when I didn't find you in your own bed?"

Neither of them answered, so he continued. "Or, were you perhaps wondering why I'm here in the existential sense, because if that's the case, I've given it a lot of thought and I think I've come up with something plausible."

Rose glared at her cousin. How could someone with a father who made it his business to take down evildoers be so... evil? It had to go against a law of nature somewhere.

Albus was probably the only one who knew about Rose's dirty little secret. He'd wandered into the room after her first little... indiscretion with Scorpius. Rose had still been screaming at the blond for allowing "things to get so out of hand".

It wasn't one of her proudest moments. Albus had stared at them for a while in shock while they yelled at each other. When he had finally spoken up, it had merely been to comment that "it takes two to tango" before leaving. His comment had taken the wind right out of Rose's sails and left her just standing awkwardly not sure what to do with herself. Scorpius' anger seemed to have faded as well, leaving them both visibly uncomfortable.

"This can never happen again," Rose had insisted, just as she had every time she'd ruined a perfectly good relationship by sleeping with Scorpius. Her insistence had yet to have any effect on either of them when it came down to it.

"I also heard an interesting story about the reappearance of Uncle Ron," Albus said, less laughter in his eyes now that he had finished the obligatory taking the piss and had moved on to more serious matters. He shifted his gaze over to Scorpius, who was glaring even more ferociously than Rose. "You stood up for her, just like a real brother would have."

Both Rose's and Scorpius' expressions morphed into twin looks of distaste, a fact that Albus noted.

"I'm not dealing with this right now," Scorpius said, standing from the bed and leaving the room.

The other two watched him leave in silence, Albus amused and Rose vaguely distraught.

"So tell me what's _really _going on with you two," Albus said.

"You know I have bad dreams and hate to be alone when they happen. I can't exactly crawl into bed with mum anymore, so Scorpius is kind of like a substitute."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she grimaced. That hadn't really been what she'd meant, but there was just no voicing their relationship in normal terms. It wasn't normal.

"A substitute," Albus echoed disbelievingly. "Scorpius Malfoy is a substitute for your mum. Somehow I doubt he's very maternal under his surly exterior, I always assumed he had a layer of thorns under there, possibly something else deadly."

"I find that really hard to believe," Albus continued dryly when it became apparent that Rose wasn't going to respond.

"What is it you believe then?" she asked. She was sure her cousin had some sort of insane theory about her relationship with her stepbrother, and that he was going to tell her whether she wanted to hear it or not. Best to get it out of the way before Scorpius returned, he'd probably hex Albus for being an idiot.

"He's your teddy bear," Albus said. At Rose's raised eyebrows, he amended his statement. "An angry, alcoholic teddy bear!"

"Don't let him hear you say that, he's not a blood relation and as such, has no obligation to avoid killing you."

Talking to Albus when he was in one of his moods was exhausting. Rose was contemplating rolling over and going back to sleep when Albus spoke again.

"Have you noticed that your stepbrother dearest looks like shite?"

"He's having a tough time at work. He won't welcome your interference."

That was a bit of an understatement. Scorpius would sooner chop off his foot than have a conversation about his problems with Albus.

Albus and Scorpius weren't the best of friends, but they did have a strange sort of friendship. Scorpius had been attending most of the family gatherings for a few years, so Albus had gotten to know him quite well. They could have a conversation, but it was usually limited to Quidditch and other "safe" topics.

Scorpius hated anyone who tried to interfere with his business, and Albus was forever sticking his nose in the affairs of others. They'd had a few arguments in the past when Albus tried to meddle where he wasn't welcome.

"Those Malfoys are very uptight about their business," he complained. "Speaking of other people's business, who's this Michael guy?"

"He's my boyfriend," Rose said.

Looking around Scorpius' room, Albus raised an eyebrow. "And what does he think about you spending most nights in a bed that isn't your own?"

Rose stood from the bed and headed towards the door, unconsciously mimicking Scorpius' earlier flight. Albus had that effect on people.

"He doesn't know about it, does he?" Albus said, following after her with a big grin.

She sighed, looking put upon. Her family caused more trouble than anything else in her life.

* * *

><p>"And what do you feel that you can bring to our department?" the interviewer asked.<p>

Rose barely restrained herself from rolling her eyes at the ridiculous question. Did they really expect her to think about those things? Like all the other applicants, Rose told a series of lies that she knew the interviewer wanted to hear. Interviews weren't really about _skills_, they were about who could lie the most convincingly.

Unless he was a skilled actor, she judged that he was pleased with her response. She really hoped she got the job; otherwise her mum would set up another series of interviews with the Ministry in hopes of finding her daughter some meaningful employment.

Rose had been to so many interviews in the past week that she wasn't even sure what part of the Ministry she was currently interviewing for.

"Well, Miss. Weasley, I can't officially tell you how you did, but off the record: expect to be reporting to work on Monday," the man said.

If she was going to start working with him Rose supposed she was going to have to try and remember his name. She thought it might start with a "P". Paul, Patrick, Pete? Peter! That's what it was.

She shook Peter's hand, smiling her thanks and then fleeing the room as quickly as possible.

On the way out of the office, Rose checked the plaque on the door. The Department of International Magical Cooperation in the International Magical Trading Standards Body Division. Ah, so that was where she was going to work. Uncle Percy would be pleased. Merlin, she was going to have to make extra sure to avoid him in the future; if he ever tried to strike up a conversation with her about cauldron thickness, she would Avada herself.

While she was at the Ministry, she may as well tell her mum the good news. Hermione would be pleased to hear that her daughter was no longer a useless member of society existing only to leech off of her parents – well, her mother and stepfather – anymore. It wasn't that money was an issue, not with a large portion of the Malfoy fortune at their disposal, but Hermione wanted her daughter to make her own place in the world on her own - with perhaps a few pushes from helpful family members to get her started.

Her mum was behind the large desk in her office when Rose knocked on the frame of the open door.

"How'd it go?" Hermione asked as soon as she saw who it was visiting her. She gestured for Rose to take a seat on the sofa placed against the wall for those few occasions that she had visitors.

"He told me unofficially that I can expect to go to work on Monday," Rose said, showing none of her mum's enthusiasm. Her new job was probably going to crush her soul like the Ministry did to nearly everyone working there. Only those oddballs like her mum actually _enjoyed _their employment there.

Hermione frowned slightly at her daughter, but she wasn't going to force her to be enthusiastic about a job she'd made it perfectly clear that she didn't want. Sometimes Hermione wished her daughter could have been more like her, just so that they'd be able to relate better. Hermione didn't like mysteries, and her daughter insisted on being one of the biggest mysteries of all.

Rubbing a hand over her rounded stomach, Hermione knew that the small life growing inside her wasn't going to have to go through having a father walk out on her. She wouldn't allow it to happen a second time, and Draco was an entirely different person than Ron. Hermione was confident Draco wouldn't leave his family. His actions during the war were proof of that; family meant everything to the Malfoys.

"Stop looking at me like that, mum," Rose complained.

"Like what?"

"Like you're sorry I ended up such a screw-up, and you're blaming yourself."

Hermione refrained from wincing. Rose was many things, but no one would ever accuse her of not being observant. Subtlety, however, seemed to elude her.

"That's not what I was thinking at all. I was just reflecting that Draco would never leave his family like Ron did." She realized her mistake when Rose's eyes darkened with that familiar haunted look. Hermione cringed slightly, trying not to let Rose see her reaction; she hadn't meant to bring up Ron, but they were going to have to talk about him sometime.

"Rose..." Hermione said, hauling herself out of her chair and coming to sit beside her daughter.

"We're not having this conversation, mum," Rose said, standing from the sofa and leaving the office.

Hermione didn't bother trying to call her back. Obviously Rose wasn't ready to talk about her father and the deep mental scars he'd left her with when he disappeared on them.

* * *

><p>Rose was sitting in the sunroom at the Manor, sprawled out on one of the sofas and reading when Scorpius wandered into the room. He was looking slightly less gaunt but just as exhausted as before. Apparently he was heeding her order to eat more. Good, she didn't have to hex him for starving himself.<p>

"Hermione informed me that in two days you're officially going to be a Ministry employee," he said, perching on a nearby chair and resting his elbows on his knees. His eyes held the mocking amusement he'd managed to keep out of his voice.

"Don't rub it in," she grumbled. Her mum had bought her a "Ministry appropriate" set of robes and insisted she wear them on the first day of work. The robes themselves wouldn't have been all that bad if they hadn't been a shade of peach that Rose had immediately hated. They also clashed horribly with her hair. She was pretty sure her mum was colour blind, or at least incapable of coordinating colours.

"Are you really going to play the 'who has the worst job' game with me?" Scorpius asked, suddenly much more serious. "Because I can guarantee that I'm going to win."

Flattening the book against her chest to keep her place, Rose hauled herself into a slightly more upright position. "You need to have another talk with your father about that," she said.

"Because he was so receptive of my opinions last time," he muttered.

Rose tried for a stern look, but it was completely ineffective. The only thing she managed to do was look slightly constipated. Somehow she didn't think that particular look would get her point across. She had to comfort herself with the thought that Scorpius knew what she'd been trying to convey.

"You have a letter from the boy toy," he said to change the subject.

Rose accepted the envelope he offered, wondering how he knew who had sent it when the only think on it was her name scrawled in what she recognised as Michael's handwriting. Her question was answered when she saw that the seal was broken; Scorpius had already read her letter. Arse.

Her eyes shot to the smug bastard in a glare.

"He's going to be back this weekend," Scorpius said before she'd even opened the envelope. He wasn't even trying to pretend that he hadn't completely invaded her privacy. There was no hint of apology in his words either. He had no conscience; that much was obvious.

Quickly, Rose scanned the letter, which basically said what Scorpius had just told her, accompanied by endearments and proclamations about how much he had missed her.

She wasn't sure whether it was because she'd had so much going on of late or deeper reasons, but she found that she hadn't missed him as much as she would have thought. After that initial feeling of abandonment, she'd been perfectly fine.

Frowning slightly, she looked up from her letter to see that Scorpius was watching her intently. "I should be furious with you for reading my mail," she said.

Oddly enough, she wasn't feeling much anger at all; it was more affectionate exasperation than anything else. This kind of behaviour was expected of the annoying git.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked.

"I'm waiting to see if the desire to hex you is going to surface. I'm not as upset that you read my mail as I should be." Her confusion was evident in her voice as she regarded him, head tilted to the side contemplatively. The initial glare had been more reflex than anything, something she always did when he deliberately set out to antagonize her.

"Either you don't care all that much about your mail or you've come to expect these things from me and they don't even effect you anymore."

For good measure, Rose shot him a glare before raising her book back to her face and continued her reading. Unfortunately, Scorpius didn't appreciate being ignored.

"I'm taking your silence as an agreement. I have to admit, even I'm a little surprised that you haven't hexed me yet."

He wasn't alone in that.

Not wanting to think on it anymore, Rose slipped a bookmark into her book and stood from her seat. She wasn't going to get any reading done until she'd sorted the things occupying her mind anyway.

* * *

><p>She found Michael in his bedroom unpacking clothes and books from a small carryon bag that had to have an undetectable extension charm on it. He didn't notice her at first, so she took a moment to observe him. He appeared a little tired and more tanned than she remembered, but those were to be expected after so long working so hard and in a warmer climate.<p>

Since she read his letter, she'd been hoping that maybe if she just saw him, she'd realize how much she'd missed him. His absence hadn't made her heart grow fonder; it only made her heart realize it didn't know what it wanted, but that it probably wasn't Michael.

Maybe once she was in his arms again her feelings would kick in. She stretched her lips into a smile, hoping it didn't look as false as it felt.

"Did you save a lot of lives on your trip?" she asked, making him jump and whip around, his hand in his pocket. That was probably where he kept his wand.

Michael's shock morphed into a smile when he saw who it was that as in his room.

"I missed you," he said, closing the distance between them and sweeping her up in his arms.

Rose wrapped her arms around his neck as his snaked around her waist. Now would be a great time for her feelings to kick in...

Any minute now.

She sighed when nothing happened.

However, just because she hadn't missed him as much as he'd missed her didn't mean there was something wrong with their relationship. She was just having a rough day.

Yes, that was it. She'd feel as she should tomorrow, after a good night's sleep.

She squeezed him tighter and kissed the bit of skin closest to her mouth, going for affectionate but just feeling weird.

Michael didn't seem to think there was anything strange about her actions. He tilted her face up so he could kiss her properly.

"How was your trip?" Rose asked when they broke apart.

"Horrible, but we managed to save almost everyone." He paused, indecision flickering in his eyes before it settled into resolve. "I brought you something."

Playing the part of dutiful girlfriend, Rose feigned excitement. "What is it?"

He turned around again to fish a small box out of his bureau.

Her heart immediately dropped into her stomach, where its beating tripled. That looked an awful lot like a ring box.

"I was wandering in the city when I saw this and thought of you. There wasn't a moment that passed that I didn't think of you," he said, turning to face her again. His eyes were earnest and nervous as they searched her face.

Slowly, never breaking her gaze, he dropped to one knee. "I know it's soon, but I can't imagine what my life would be like without you in it. I love you Rose, and I want to be with you until my dying day."

Rose covered her mouth; he was _not _about to ask what all the signs were pointing to... Was he?

"Rose Weasley, will you marry me?"

Apparently he was. Shit.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**A/N: Hello readers! Thanks to all of you who reviewed! None of you (who reviewed, anyway) guessed Rose's reaction to the proposal, so I'm kind of proud of myself for not being completely predictable. **

**I'm warning you now, this chapter is one of the more morally questionable ones, but it was one of the most fun to write, so I hope you guys like it.**

**Also, thanks to Adele for betaing!**

**~Frosty**

In shock, Rose just stared at him for a moment. Her mind was unable to register what had just happened. She tried blinking a couple times, waiting for the insanity in front of her to dissolve into something that made sense.

Nope, he was still down on one knee, looking up at her hopefully.

They hadn't been together long enough for her to be entirely comfortable with keeping a toothbrush in his bathroom, much less marrying him. What was he _thinking_?

When the silence stretched too long, Michael spoke. "Rose?"

Shedding her shock, Rose took his hand and pulled him to his feet. She didn't want him hurting his knee, that position didn't look comfortable. She also didn't want to tell him what she was about to tell him while he was on the ground, looking up at her adoringly. It felt too much like kicking a puppy for her liking.

"Michael, we haven't been together for very long," she started.

That was reasonable, right? Much better than the running and screaming that her brain kept suggesting. She was pretty sure running and screaming would hurt Michael's feelings.

He shushed her. "I know you think we should be together for longer before we take a big step like this, but just think about it before you say no. We're so good together and I think I can make you happy."

Her next protest was stopped as he put the velvet ring box into her hand and closed her chilled fingers around it. She would have just let it fall to the ground if he hadn't made her hold it.

"I have to get to the hospital and check up on my patients, but you take that with you as a reminder of the life we could have together," he said.

* * *

><p>Moodily, she glared at the little box she was holding. The thing had been haunting her since the moment Michael had first brought it out.<p>

Michael had told her to take as long as she wanted to make her decision, but she thought it would be best to tell him sooner rather than later. A marriage proposal just wasn't something that you were supposed to take much time considering. If the answer wasn't immediately an emphatic "Yes!" there probably shouldn't be a marriage in the first place.

She had always thought that if someone were to propose to her, her heart would know the answer immediately. It wasn't like it was a particularly _hard _question. Did she, or did she not want to spend the rest of her life with him?

It was so much more complicated than it sounded though. Her heart and mind were completely at odds.

Michael was safe and kind and he loved her. He loved her enough to want to marry her after such a short time. But Rose wasn't sure she wanted safe and kind. He was supposed to be her other half, wasn't he? She was pretty sure she was supposed to miss her other half when he was gone.

"If you stare any harder at that, you're going to set it on fire," said a voice behind her.

Rose tilted her head to see Albus, leaning in her doorway and looking curiously at the object she was holding.

"Haven't you gone back to Australia yet?" she asked irritably.

Albus grinned at her. "Don't you know anything, Rose? Quidditch season is over; I have a few months to take it easy."

"So you've decided to come here and annoy me?"

His grin smoothed out into something more serious. "I'm worried about you, Rose. Especially with your dad back in town."

Lovely, people were going to be shooting her those annoying _concerned _looks and walking on eggshells around her for the next few months. If there was one thing she couldn't stand more than her father, it was people treating her with kid gloves whenever he was mentioned.

Albus, of all people, should know better.

"I don't need coddling," she snapped.

"Of course not," he waved off her snippy attitude, knowing not to take it personally. "I heard you got a job at the Ministry and came to see if you wanted to celebrate."

"I'm not really in the mood for celebrating, Albus," Rose said, hoping he'd take the hint and make himself scarce. Unfortunately, he was part Weasley, and on top of that, a Potter, which meant he didn't know when to mind his own business and just walk away.

She didn't want to deal with his prying on top of the stress from Michael's proposal. That little ring was weighing so heavily on her mind that it may as well have been a boulder. It was crushing her.

Who proposed after spending so little time dating, anyway? Michael barely knew her! He probably didn't even know that she absolutely hated oregano, or that she secretly enjoyed climbing trees, even though she was supposed to have grown out of the habit! What if those were deal breakers for him?

"Well then, let's say goodbye to your period of unemployment with a bang - and copious amounts of alcohol," Albus said, snapping her out of the panic she'd been spiralling into. Much longer and she would have needed a paper bag to get her breathing under control.

When she shifted to glare at her cousin, Rose accidentally moved the ring to where he could see it. "You're just going to keep prying into my life until you can come up with something that I'm willing to drink about, aren't you?"

He stared, completely focused on the small box in his cousin's hand.

"How about we go out and get completely drunk so you don't have to think about the proposal that's eating away at you?" he said quietly.

Impressive. It had only taken one glance into the ring box for him to figure out what her problem was. He knew her well – though in all fairness, it had been fairly obvious once he'd seen the engagement ring.

Rose shut the box and shoved it under her pillow. "For once, I'm not entirely opposed to the idea. Let's go."

Mouth open, Albus watched her get her purse and wand. "You're actually coming with me? Willingly, with no further coercion?"

She nodded. "Might as well. I don't think agonizing over my answer is going to change it."

"You're going to say no, aren't you?"

Rose didn't look back at him as she led the way out of the house. "We're not talking about this," she said firmly.

Her mum had always insisted that drinking wasn't a way to solve problems, and Rose had always agreed with her. It was, however, an excellent way to forget about those problems for a short while.

* * *

><p>Giggling to herself, Rose tried to enter the Manor quietly so she didn't wake anyone. She wasn't sure what time it was, but she knew it was late enough that she was going to get in trouble if she woke anyone up with her drunken stumbling.<p>

The entire world was spinning, a subtle hint that she was completely smashed.

She wasn't sure if drinking had done any good, but she had a feeling the hangover she was guaranteed to have in the morning certainly wouldn't help her problems. Although she'd probably be too miserable about feeling like something a cat had vomited up to worry about answering Michael.

When she finally got to the hallway outside her bedroom - after only knocking over one footstool and a vase - her bedroom door seemed to be eluding her. Undeterred, Rose turned to Scorpius' room. It was probably best she went there anyway; if she whined enough and threatened to vomit on his bed, he'd probably give her one of his hangover potions in the morning. She'd certainly handed them to him frequently enough to warrant him returning the favour.

For some reason, Scorpius' door was much less elusive than hers. In fact, it was so eager to open for her that it very nearly hit her in the forehead. The doors were against her.

Luckily, Scorpius' bed was much less crafty than those vile doors. She easily flopped down onto the welcoming softness of the mattress.

Mmmm, toasty.

Somehow, in her efforts to crawl into the middle of the bed, closer to the warmth Scorpius was exuding, she ended up slapping her palm on his chest.

It was a nice chest, even if he hadn't been eating enough recently.

Unable to resist, she brought her other hand to join the first one. A quiet giggle escaped her. She knew she was being bad, that she wasn't supposed to touch him, but she was having too much fun to stop. Clumsily, she traced a pattern that only made sense to her over his skin.

"Rose, what are you doing?" Scorpius asked. He didn't sound entirely opposed to her ministrations, more curious than anything. She didn't stop what she was doing.

She swung a leg over him so she was straddling his hips. Reaching the way she'd been doing was going to give her a crick in her side and was a hard position to hold with her unreliable balance.

"You smell like a distillery," Scorpius commented, sounding much more awake. He still hadn't moved to stop her, he was merely laying there, passive, while Rose hovered over him. It wasn't normal; he had usually taken over long before this point.

Starting to get frustrated that he hadn't moved to touch her back, Rose decided to increase her efforts. She crouched down so she could press her lips against his neck like she knew he enjoyed.

When he made a quiet huff and brought his hands up to her hips, she smiled victoriously against his skin. She was winning. The game was a little unclear, but she was winning – probably. It was hard to be sure when she kept forgetting the goal.

"You're going to yell at me in the morning if I let this go any farther," he commented, almost idly.

She took her weight off of her arms, flopping gracelessly against him. He made a quiet 'oof' sound when she collapsed on him. The alcohol prevented her from being quite as seductive as she thought she was, but it was the alcohol's fault she was there in the first place.

"Never stopped you before," she said, moving to nip along his collarbone. Usually, it annoyed her that he refused to wear shirts to bed, but right then, she was grateful. She wasn't going to have to fight the thing off of him. Shirts were tricky when alcohol was involved. Rose knew from experience that they waited until you least expected it and then got you all tangled and trapped. With her recent losing streak against inanimate objects, she had a feeling it would be a fight she was doomed to lose should a shirt challenge her.

"What makes you think I'm willing to do this?" he asked.

Rose rolled her eyes and sat up, sitting on him. After only a moment of struggling, she managed to pull her shirt over her head and throw it across the room. Ha! Victory over the clothing beast. Her luck with inanimate objects was changing!

"Don't tell me you've grown a conscience," she groaned. "It's not like we're about to break any rules that we haven't broken before."

Scorpius sighed, shrugged, and then bucked his hips to throw her off balance and push her to the mattress.

She was pretty sure she heard him say something about 'going to hell anyway' right before he settled over top of her.

* * *

><p>It was the pounding of her head that woke her. There was none of the panic that many people experience upon waking up in a bed that wasn't theirs because she spent almost as much time in Scorpius' bed as she did her own of late. However, that was pretty much the only upside to her situation.<p>

She tried to reach for the end table that was less than a metre away, but just moving her arm hurt too much. Her poor head was attempting to split itself in half. Even the groan that escaped her hurt.

"Hung-over?" her bed mate asked, sounding much too amused.

"I'm dying," she rasped.

Scorpius studied her. "I seem to remember you storming in here and gleefully abusing me the last time I had a hangover."

Every one of his words was like a needle in her brain. Did he have to talk so loudly? No, he didn't, but he was a sadistic bastard who obviously enjoyed her pain.

"Just get me a hangover potion before I die."

Not having a death wish, Scorpius passed her the bottle that had been in his hand all along. He'd been purposely prolonging her misery!

Rose was too happy about the promise of relief from her torment to be properly upset with him for sadistically keeping it from her.

The first night they'd woken up together, Rose had found her head resting on Scorpius' chest while his arm held her there. She'd yelled so much that he knew not to touch her the morning after shagging her.

Leaning back against the headboard, arms crossed over his bare chest and a good amount of space between them, Scorpius watched as she drank the potion, making the lines of pain around her eyes disappear as it started working.

"So what did the boy toy do to make you want to chuck him?" he asked once she had opened her eyes again. She was slightly more alert this time and didn't flinch from the light like some kind of vampire.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked, rubbing her head as the last vestiges of her headache faded away.

"Don't play dumb, Weasley," Scorpius growled, suddenly irritated with her. "You only sleep with me when you're in a relationship you want out of. You like to be able to blame someone else for your screw-ups."

Startled, her eyes darted up to meet his. There was a seriousness there that he didn't usually display. Apparently he was putting his foot down about their nights together.

"That's a lie," she hissed.

"It's not and you know it. Every time you get too close to someone or decide you want to end your relationship, you get drunk and run to my bed."

Dragging the sheet with her Rose tried to stand, only to find that she was slightly dizzy. She leant against the bedpost and glared, trying to look threatening and not fall onto the floor at the same time. It probably wasn't working, but Scorpius was rarely intimidated by her anyway.

"Even if that was true, you don't exactly complain," she said.

Tiredly, Scorpius rubbed his hands over his face, all the fight having leaked out of him. "No, I don't," he said.

She probably should have made him elaborate, but she wasn't sure she wanted him to. If he'd always thought she was using him instead of the other way around and had still allowed it to happen on several occasions... Well, she wasn't sure what that meant, but she doubted it was a conclusion she wanted to reach.

_Was _she just using him to get out of relationships? If she was, it wasn't consciously.

"So what'd he do," Scorpius continued, "empty a drawer for you to keep your clothes in? Invite you to meet his parents? Ask you on a holiday that would require you to spend a week straight in his presence?"

Rose stared at him for a moment. How was it Scorpius knew about her fear of commitment but her own boyfriend didn't seem to have a clue about it?

"He asked me to marry him," she said flatly.

Surprised, Scorpius let out a bark of a laugh. "He should have known better than to ask you so soon. The only thing worse than your fear of being alone, is your fear of commitment. The fact that he did it so soon after that incident with your dad just goes to show how inconsiderate he is."

Rose's eyebrows drew together; had she even told Michael what had happened with her father? She wasn't sure. And since when was Scorpius so concerned about people being inconsiderate? It was pretty inconsiderate to call her at all hours of the night to come and bail him out of jail, and he didn't seem to be bothered in the least by that.

Something seemed to occur to him, making Scorpius' face darken slightly. "You didn't tell the bloke yes and _then _sleep with me, right? Breaking an engagement on the night after you take his ring is low even for your loose moral standards."

Rose should probably be insulted, but he was right – though he wasn't one who should be pointing fingers at others and judging morals.

"I have the ring, but he made me take it with me while I consider it. I didn't tell him I was going to marry him," she said defensively.

Did he really think so little of her? So she didn't have the best track record relationship-wise, that didn't mean she was the horrible person he was implying.

He snorted. "Well, that's so much better. Everything's okay then, you're only _thinking _about telling the man you'll marry him."

"Since when do you care so much about Michael?" she demanded. Not so long ago, Scorpius had no problem helping her ruin relationships, now he was defending Michael, someone he'd shown on more than one occasion that he hated?

"I'm starting to sympathise with the poor bloke."

Pulling her shirt on, Rose shot him a confused look. "What are you talking about? You hate him."

Scorpius ignored the question, watching her slide her pants over her hips and button them.

"Where are you going?" he asked as she approached the door, fully dressed.

"I'm going to break off an engagement that never started," she said. _Before I lose my courage_, she added in her head. For some reason, she thought that Scorpius already knew the second part without her having to say it.

"Make sure you cover that hickey, I don't think it will go over well," Scorpius called after her.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**A/N: Hello readers! I know I don't post as much as you'd like, but I can only go so fast. Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed! You guys are the best! Also thanks to Adele for betaing! *sigh* I've abused the exclamation point again, haven't I... Oh well.**

**~Frosty**

Michael was still asleep when she Apparated over, the ring box clutched tightly in her fist and no plan to speak of.

The ring itself wasn't all that bad really, it was a little clunky for her tastes, but she could see herself wearing it. If only the man it belonged to was what she wanted.

She thought about just leaving the ring and going home again, but, strangely enough, she knew she wouldn't be able to face _Scorpius_ of all people if she did that. There was something deeply wrong with her. Since when was Scorpius her moral compass, and what law of the universe had shifted to allow something like that to happen? Rose was concerned that it was a fundamental and very important one.

Wrapping her waning courage around herself like a protective cloak, she gently nudged Michael. He was a light sleeper and woke up almost instantly, blinking at her in confusion. Too late for her to run now, he'd probably just chase after her.

"Rose," Michael said with a smile that melted away when he saw her serious expression.

She had a brief moment of panic where she frantically wished she'd thought of what to say beforehand. Should she tell him that she cheated on him, or just tell him they were over without giving him a reason? The former would break his heart while possibly leaving him to think that she was seeking his forgiveness and the latter could make him feel like they didn't have any closure.

Telling him that she thought him too _nice_ for her wasn't really an option; he'd probably take it the wrong way. Or worse, he'd smile and tell her _he understood._ Merlin, she hoped he didn't do that.

Rose wished she could have given up on their relationship sooner, before he got attached enough to want to marry her. It was mostly him her selfish reluctance was going to hurt.

She should have known better than to try and have a normal relationship, especially while living under the same roof as Scorpius. He ruined everything.

"You're not going to marry me," Michael guessed. Even half asleep, he could still read the pained indecision on her face as she tried to break the horrible news to him. Standing from the bed, he reached for her hands but Rose stepped out of his reach. She didn't want him touching her.

"I can't," she whispered.

Instead of the sadness she'd anticipated, Michael's jaw tightened and he nodded his head as if this was what he'd been expecting.

If he'd known she would say no, then why had he proposed in the first place? Keeping his ring to himself would have saved her all kinds of stress, not to mention a horrible hangover.

"I suppose I knew your answer the moment you said you would need some time."

A tapping on the window went unnoticed by both of them as they stared at each other.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked. Even she hadn't been entirely sure that she was going to say no until she'd had half a brewery in her stomach. It had been immensely unlikely, but there was a possibility that she would have tried to settle with him.

Michael shook his head. "I'm the one who gets to ask the questions in this situation, I believe. What is it you're hiding from me?"

She must have had a guilty expression on her face, because his lips thinned into a tight line and his eyes hardened.

"I knew there was something you're not telling me. What is it?"

Swallowing, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, stalling. "We need to end this. It's not just marriage I don't want; I don't think this relationship is going to work at all."

She felt guilty when she saw that he was staring at her as if she'd just hit him. Maybe she could have worded that a little better...

"You're breaking up with me?" He blinked several times, trying to understand what had happened.

"I can't..." she started, her words trailing off and mouth moving uselessly as she wasn't sure what she needed to say. "I slept with someone else!" she blurted, and then immediately wished she hadn't.

Okay, that wasn't as tactful as she could have been, but was there really a good way to tell someone you cheated on them? Rose didn't think so. No matter which carefully-chosen words she'd used, the message would have been the same, and it was the message that was the problem.

"Who?" His voice was hollow and he was wearing an expression as shell-shocked as a new recruit in the midst of a battle. The poor man was completely shell-shocked. Lovely, she'd gone and broken the poor man.

Arms crossed over her chest, she straightened her posture.

"Does it really matter?" The question wasn't harsh, it was hushed and sympathetic. In her mind, it _didn't _matter who it was, the important thing was that it had happened.

"I think I deserve to know who it was that ruined our relationship."

Good, his shock was fading and anger was starting to bleed into his countenance. Anger she could handle, breaking him she could not. Responding to his anger, she summoned some of her own.

"A relationship that wasn't working! What made you think that it was okay to just _propose _to me? We weren't exactly at that point in our relationship."

"They offered me a job in India," he said.

Rose frowned, eyebrows furrowing and making deep ridges above her nose. "So you thought you'd ask me to marry you and then spring it on me that if we were going to stay together I'd have to change _countries_?"

Taking a deep breath in through her nose, she calmed herself. It was over, so there was no point in yelling at her for proposing under false pretences, although she was furious that he'd thought to manipulate her like that. If she had said yes, that alone would have been enough to make her change her mind.

In the silence that followed, the tapping on the glass became more obvious. Not wanting to stand there in uncomfortable silence, Rose moved to the window and let the poor owl in. She knew the bird, it was Scorpius'.

Scorpius knew she would be busy and that answering an owl would be inconvenient, so it was probably an emergency for him to bother sending something when she'd be back at the Manor in less than an hour.

The owl flew off as soon as she took the letter from its leg, so it wasn't expecting a response. Rose unfolded the parchment, her frown only deepening when she read what was inside.

_Come back. I need your help._

Asking for help was only something Scorpius did when he was drunk, and she seriously doubted even he would manage to get that drunk so quickly. Something must have gone seriously wrong in a very short time for him to reach out to her for assistance, possibly risking Michael seeing the request.

A rush of guilt washed over her when she glanced back at Michael and saw him watching her impatiently.

"I have to go," she said.

Michael looked like he was going to protest for a moment, but he shook his head, waving her off.

Still feeling guilty, Rose hesitated. There had to be something she could say that would make the situation better before she ran off.

"Go," Michael snapped.

Chastised, she Apparated back to the Manor immediately. She'd been fooling herself to think her continued presence helped the situation. Rose had a feeling she wasn't going to be seeing much of Michael anymore, not that she was near as torn up about it as she should have been. Honestly, she was more resigned than anguished about the death of their relationship.

There was something wrong with her. She'd be worried that she was a sociopath, except that she had an abundance of feelings from the negative end of the spectrum to grapple with, anger prominent among them. Sociopaths didn't feel proper love, but they also didn't feel proper anger, so that wasn't her problem.

She half-jogged up the path to the Manor and bounced up the stairs at a run. It was better to be safe than sorry. If Scorpius really needed her, then she didn't want him to wait, and if he was just taking the piss, then she would see to it that he was drawn and quartered.

His room was empty. All of the usual places he tended to lurk were void of him as well. Rose was out of breath by the time she'd finished rushing all over the Manor and searching for him.

She was standing outside Draco's study, about to knock and ask if he knew where his son was when she heard his voice inside, raised in anger.

"He's crossed the line this time! Obviously the job isn't teaching him the discipline I'd hoped it would," Draco snapped. "Everything he does somehow goes sideways, and he deals with it by drinking!"

Rose heard her mum murmur something in response, but the sound was muffled by the thick wood of the closed door. She was probably trying to get Draco to calm down before he popped a blood vessel.

"He's had enough chances!" Draco snapped. "Not once has that boy done something good."

Cheeks flushed with anger, Rose had to restrain herself from ripping the door open and correcting them. Scorpius was a mess most of the time, but he was capable of kindness, and she didn't understand how his father couldn't see that.

She was just about to turn away and continue her search without interrupting the conversation going on in the study when something her mum said made Draco start yelling again.

"There's something wrong with that boy! Not even my father can straighten him out."

That did it; she couldn't just listen to Scorpius' father talking like that about his own son when Scorpius wasn't there to defend himself.

"There's nothing wrong with him!" she snapped, making both of the room's occupants jump at her sudden appearance. "Sure, he has some issues, but can you blame him? You're nothing but hard on him and his mother is a psychopath. He learned young to keep everything so tightly bottled up inside that the only way he can deal with it is drinking.

"I know you're not unfamiliar with traumatic childhoods, the both of you, but he's a different kind of damaged, And he _is _capable of doing something good."

Shocked at her sudden appearance, Hermione and Draco only stared at her.

"That job that's supposed to be straightening him out is killing him, and if you haven't noticed something so obvious, maybe you should revaluate yourself as a person before you start declaring others as useless."

"Rose!" Hermione exclaimed, sounding horrified that her daughter had said such things to Draco.

Rose looked at her mum challengingly, completely unapologetic. As far as Rose was concerned, it didn't matter that she was being rude, she needed to say it and Draco needed to hear it. She'd say it again if the opportunity presented itself.

The anger in Draco's eyes that had faded to shock at her appearance came back, this time directed at her. She wondered if Scorpius would even appreciate her defence of him. Probably not, knowing him.

"He doesn't think about his actions," Draco snarled. "Your father may be a bloody wanker, but the public still thinks of him as a war hero, and by punching him, Scorpius ruined years of careful work on my part to restore the tarnished family name."

Rose straightened her posture and tilted her chin minutely, unwilling to bow under the force of Draco's stare. It may not have been entirely his fault, but Draco had been a Death Eater, not his son. Scorpius shouldn't have to suffer for the sins of previous generations.

"Is it really so bad that his first instinct was to stop dad from hurting me?" she asked. In her books, Scorpius' behaviour was entirely welcome. Ron probably wouldn't have hit her or anything, but he hadn't shown any remorse for hurting her, and he'd proven in the past that he wasn't above verbal abuse. She wouldn't have come away from the encounter without some new scars, even if they were only emotional ones.

There really wasn't anything either of them could say to that. Scorpius had done a good thing for her, and his dad didn't get to say that made his son a screw-up just because he was going to have a little more difficulty sucking up to investors or whatever it was he did with his good reputation.

Unfortunately, Draco still didn't look convinced. She was going to have to give them more proof that Scorpius wasn't all that bad.

Like her stepbrother, Rose had a habit of acting before her thoughts had had time to catch up to the situation. Unlike Scorpius, Rose's habit usually only emerged when she was allowing her anger to get the better of her. This was one of those situations.

"When we first moved here, I cried almost every night," she said, shaking her head when her mum moved to comfort her. She didn't want comfort; she wanted to get her point across. "I usually went into Hugo's room and slept there because I couldn't fall asleep while I was alone. Then one day I accidentally went into Scorpius' room by mistake. He's not the unfeeling arse you two seem to think he is. He comforted me, and not once did he turn me away. No matter what we screamed at each other during the day, he always let me take over half of his bed."

"Rose," Hermione whispered, a hand pressed against her mouth and tears welling in her eyes. She'd had no idea that her daughter was so affected by the split with Ron. Hermione had expected her daughter to be torn up about it, but she usually presented herself as so unaffected, so Hermione assumed that Rose had her own ways of coping.

Shaking her fiery curls, Rose dismissed Hermione's concern. "That's not important though; I got a letter and need to find him. Do you know where he is?"

Draco, who had been watching Rose with a contemplative expression since she'd started her little sharing time, spoke up. "What is it about you that triggers some unheard of kindness in my son?"

"Draco!" Hermione admonished. "She's Rose, there's a million things about her to love."

"That's not what I'm asking though, I want to know what it is about Rose, someone he did nothing but antagonize for years, that brings out this kind person that no one else seems to have ever witnessed."

Mentally, Rose berated herself. She should have known better than to try and convince them that he wasn't the person they thought him to be. Draco wasn't likely to believe her without proof, which was something she had in short supply.

"Just tell me if you know where he is," she said.

"He got a message from his grandfather and rushed off to work after sending a quick letter. That was almost an hour ago," Hermione answered when Draco didn't speak. She gave her husband a reproachful look for not being more forthcoming with the information Rose wanted.

Nodding her thanks, Rose left the room before Draco's observant eyes pulled something out of her head that she didn't want them to know.

* * *

><p>Rose was pacing. She'd tried waiting patiently for Scorpius to come back, but her anxiety had overwhelmed her. If he didn't work for someone as mysterious and reclusive as his grandfather, she would have known <em>where <em>it was he worked and would be able to go there and check up on him.

As it was, she was left to pacing, getting more and more nervous as the hours ticked by and Scorpius didn't return.

Sometime around three in the morning, she wandered into his room to check that he hadn't come back and she just hadn't heard him.

He wasn't there.

When she was too tired to hold herself up properly, she curled up on his bed and stared at the door anxiously, hoping he'd come back soon.

She was going to murder him if he'd sent her that letter as a joke and then decided to go get drunk. Hell, when he turned up, she was going to murder him for making her worry like this whether it had been an emergency or not.

When the door clicked open quietly, she sprang up, not sure whether she was going to hug or strangle him. Probably hug until she knew he was fine, _then _she could strangle him. Her heart leapt in relief when she saw a blond head enter the room, but it dropped once more when she realized it was the wrong blond head.

"What are you doing in here?" Draco asked.

Rose sighed and let herself fall back onto the bed. "I'm waiting for him, and if he's not dead, then I'm going to strangle him," she muttered, her lack of sleep making her grumpier than normal.

She rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling. "Come to yell at him some more?"

"What are you talking about?"

Rose couldn't see him, but she could hear a strange note in his voice. Belatedly, she remembered that she wasn't supposed to know about the time she hid under the bed and eavesdropped as Scorpius told Draco his job was weighing heavily on his soul.

"I was here that morning you came in here to yell at him for slacking at work and he told you that he needed to stop working for Lucius." Knowing that he needed to see her eyes to get the full effect of her next words, Rose summoned the energy to raise her head. She tried to pin him with her stare like Scorpius could do to her, but she wasn't as effective at it as he was. "If he doesn't come back from this, you're partially to blame. He _told _you he couldn't keep doing it."

Draco paled more than normal, looking stricken before he composed himself. "You don't know what you're talking about."

What little energy she'd managed to summon faded and she let her head drop. "Don't I? Or is it you who doesn't know what you're talking about?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**A/N: Hello readers! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially the anonymous reviewer yay for all the reviews! In answer to your question, yes Ron is still respected, just less than Hermione because he was a jerkface to his family. Hermione's first suspicion was romance rather than siblingness because of the way Scorpius was looking out for Rose and the way they interacted. Also the fact that they were hiding that they didn't hate each other is suspicious and Hermione's a sharp cookie. Moms know things, it's really frustrated when you're trying to get away with something. **

**Also thanks to Adele for betaing!**

**~Frosty**

As days passed, still with no sign of Scorpius, tensions only increased inside Malfoy Manor. Draco had taken to avoiding her, possibly because he couldn't stand Rose's accusing stares, and Hermione would just look between the two of them, bewildered and confused by their behaviour.

Unfortunately, life didn't stop just because Rose's insides were violently twisted in knots. She started her new job at the Ministry, much to her mum's pleasure.

She filed things for her job. That was basically all she did. It was mind numbingly boring and an insult to her intelligence. Her brain had gotten much more of a workout at her old job.

Her coworkers had learned pretty quickly not to talk to her when she was staring worriedly off into space. She tended to snap at anyone who was near her when she was snapped out of thinking about Scorpius. He had obviously sent her that letter asking for help for a reason, and she had let him down with her slow response.

On the sixth day with no sign of him, Rose snapped. She'd searched Scorpius' room the night before and found a few scribbled notes, suggesting a location off of Knockturn Alley. Not having any other clues, she was going to go there and hope that was where Lucius had his business. For someone supposedly having a 'legitimate' business, Lucius was certainly hard to find. It was almost as if he was hiding from someone.

By lunchtime, Rose had decided that going to investigate her missing stepbrother was much more important than making sure some pieces of paper were in their proper drawer. In the Muggle world, her job would probably have been replaced by a computer, and in the magical world, she was made unnecessary by a simple summoning spell.

It was easy to slip out of the office without anyone saying anything. All she had to do was bring an empty file folder with her and stride purposefully. No one questioned her as she walked right out of the office and then into the Ministry atrium.

Getting to Knockturn Alley was easy enough; all she had to do was use the Ministry Floo system.

As a general rule, Rose avoided the dark offshoot of Diagon Alley like the plague. It was a dark place of shady corners that held shadier characters. Children of war heroes were not popular with the type that frequented the area, and she hated the nasty, vaguely threatening looks people were always shooting her way whenever they realized who she was.

She was still wearing her work clothes, that frustratingly ugly peach monstrosity her mother had bought for her. There was no hood, so her red hair was on display for all to see, marking her as a Weasley. People glared and some even hissed as she passed, but few would dare risk the wrath of the Weasley family, not after the war. They held a lot of influence, and the Ministry was incredibly harsh on those who attacked the families of war heroes.

When Rose arrived at the address she'd found on the scrap of paper, she had to double check to make sure she was in the right place. She'd been expecting something ominous and intimidating or dark and run-down like the rest of the alley, but this building was different than those surrounding it.

The bricks of the building weren't dingy like she would have expected considering those of the surrounding buildings, instead, they were a vibrant red that was startling in the dreary atmosphere of the alley.

It would be almost a cheery colour if the aura around the house wasn't so dark. Combined with the threatening pulses of magic coming from the house, the vibrant red resembled the red of fresh blood rather than something happier.

Rose had come across a Dementor once when she was small. It had leeched all the warmth and happiness from her and left her a shivery, empty shell before her mum had found her and cast her Patronus.

As she approached the red building, Rose felt almost like she was approaching a diluted version of the same thing. There was no happiness to be felt inside those blood-red walls. No wonder Scorpius hated his job so much.

The storefront was normal enough - if she didn't pay any attention to the feeling of doom lurking around the building. Ignoring this, she walked up the stairs and opened the door.

No one was inside.

There were a few chairs scattered around the very small waiting room, but there wasn't a single soul in sight, not even a receptionist behind the desk. The oppressively beige walls only served to emphasise the echoing emptiness of the room.

Rose didn't really blame the employees for not wanting to linger near their workplace; it was a wonder that they got any business at all with such an eerie, unwelcoming business. Although she supposed that the type of people who had Dark Artefacts weren't going to be bothered by pesky things like soul-sucking auras.

Knowing that the size of the building indicated there must be more rooms, Rose moved towards the only door in sight, located behind the desk. She half expected there to be some sort of spell in place to stop her from getting inside, but there were suspiciously few defences on the area. Maybe they depended on reputation and the ominous atmosphere to prevent theft.

The knob turned easily and the door swung open without so much as a squeak.

Behind the door, the room was much different than the previous one. Gone was the beige and cheap but stylish furniture. The walls were bare, dingy brick and there were cobwebs hanging from the ceiling in gauzy tendrils.

The cold, depressing feeling intensified as she closed the door behind her and advanced into the room. Whatever was making the place so depressing, she was getting closer to it.

Shivering at the creepy atmosphere, Rose looked around. While the waiting room had only boasted a single door, this room had three; one of which she'd just entered.

Randomly, Rose picked the door closest to her and opened it, revealing a rickety-looking wooden staircase clinging precariously onto another dingy stone wall and leading down into darkness. The black expanse below her wasn't normal darkness; it had a weight to it that pressed towards her. She'd be willing to bet a lot of money that whatever was making the whole place so scary was down there in that strange darkness.

Rose _really _didn't want to go down there, but she knew she was going to have to. If she was an evil former Death Eater, the dark basement would be where she would keep the captives.

Sighing, she advanced towards the door. Scorpius better be bleeding and in desperate need of her help. If he had just wandered off and fallen asleep, then she was going to kill him herself.

Glancing behind her to make sure no one was looking, Rose pulled the door almost shut and turned into a cat. There was no way she would have been able to climb down those stairs in her normal body without making a symphony of squeaks rings out from those rickety boards. Plus the night vision as a cat meant she didn't have to announce her presence with a light.

The darkness didn't press on her as much when she wasn't human, which was odd. She supposed in the same way Sirius had managed to stay sane in Azkaban because of his Animagus form, she was able to escape some of the pressure from the Dark Magic.

She padded down the stairs, her ears alert for even the smallest sound. Judging for the silence, the basement was just as empty as the rest of the house. The only sound she could hear was the shuffling and quiet squeaks of mice going about their business in the walls.

Rose was way past suspecting that there was something fishy going on with the place and well into _knowing _something strange was afoot. Why would there be no sign of anyone anywhere in the place on a weekday? There should be _someone _behind that little desk she'd seen in the waiting room.

Her sensitive nose picked up the damp, mildew smell of a basement that was never entirely dry as well as a slight tang of fear and blood. Heart beating rapidly, she followed the smell of blood through a doorway and down a tunnel.

The scent led her to yet another stone room, but this one wasn't empty. There was one piece of furniture: a table covered in a white tablecloth. The pristine, perfect whiteness of the tablecloth in such a dirty, dusty place marked it as something magical and made it that much more disturbing. It was unnatural. On the table was a pearlescent orb about the size of both of Rose's fists.

Having seen no signs of human life, Rose turned back into herself. The floors were packed dirt, so she didn't have to waste energy making sure her footfalls were silent.

The terrible aura of the building seemed to be coming from that little orb. Despite the horrible feeling it emanated, Rose felt herself drawn to it.

Hesitantly, she stepped towards it and reached out a hand to touch the smooth surface. All of the bad feelings faded as her skin made contact, but she wasn't paying much attention to them. She was focused on the orb as its opaque surface cleared and revealed a small snake inside, coiled tightly around itself.

Rose didn't know much about snakes, but she knew that the bright bands of colour around this one suggested that it was probably poisonous. Panicking slightly, she tried to pull her hand away, only to find that she was paralysed, unable to even blink her eyes.

As if knowing that its victim was thoroughly trapped, the snake's eyes snapped open and its golden gaze burned into her. She could feel it rifling through her mind, looking for something, but she was helpless to stop it.

This must be one of the Dark artefacts that Lucius made a living containing, and she'd wandered in and fallen prey to one.

Rose couldn't do anything to resist when the snake slowly uncoiled itself, rearing back and staring at her. Its presence retreated from her mind just as it struck, lightning fast towards the hand that was still held captive against the orb.

Pain ripped through her arm as its fangs buried themselves deep into her skin. If she'd had use of her mouth, she would have screamed.

Suddenly, Rose couldn't breathe. There was something covering her mouth and stopping her from taking in air. The venom was constricting her lungs! She probably only had seconds to come to terms with the fact that she was going to die.

Something slid around her middle from behind, viciously yanking her away from the snake. Rose was still paralysed as she was dragged out a door she hadn't noticed when she'd been in the room before.

She was pulled against something warm and held there by the pressure around her waist.

"Don't scream," said a voice in her ear.

The hand over her mouth moved when she weakly nodded her head. She gasped in a huge breath, glad to once again be able to breathe.

Her palm was throbbing in agony and making her weak, so she sagged against the person behind her, allowing him to hold her up and not really caring if he was an axe murderer or not. He'd pulled her away from that snake thing, and that made him okay in her books.

"What the hell were you thinking?" the person behind her demanded in an angry hiss.

She knew that voice. Rose tilted her head at a strange angle so she could get a look at the person behind her. He was dirty and starved-looking, but it was Scorpius.

Rose didn't answer the question, taking in quick, gasping breaths to try and deal with the pain.

He shook her slightly. "Well?"

"I was looking for you!" Rose snapped. "You sent me a letter asking for help and then just disappeared." Her hand gave a particularly painful pulse and she stopped her lecture to groan quietly.

Scorpius slid down the wall he'd been leaning against, pulling her with him. "The pain will fade in a few minutes," he said

Not asking how he knew that, Rose concentrated on her breathing. There was no ignoring the pain, but she wasn't going to let herself pass out from it.

They sat on the floor like that for what felt like an eternity to Rose, but was probably only a few minutes. Gradually, the pain did start to recede; making her fell almost cold without the burning soreness shooting up her arm.

Scorpius noticed that she wasn't so distracted by the pain anymore.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you that curiosity killed the cat?" he asked.

Rose shifted away from him, turned around and punched him right in the eye with her uninjured hand. She was feeble and shaking from her recent pain, but Scorpius still jerked away from her and groaned.

She shook out the hand she'd used to hit him. Maybe it hadn't been the best idea to risk hurting her one uninjured hand. Luckily, she didn't think anything was broken, just a little bruised.

"What was that for?" he demanded, hand pressed to his eye.

"That was for making me worry," she said, shakily standing up. She kept her uninjured hand against the wall until she was sure that her legs would hold her.

"Let's get out of here," Scorpius muttered. He kept a wary eye on Rose in case she decided to punch him again, but he didn't stray too far from her side. "Lucius is in one of the back rooms, so try not to make too much noise," he warned.

Rose nodded, turning back into a cat so her footsteps would be completely silent. Unfortunately, she underestimated her hand. It felt much less painful, but that had been before she tried to walk on it.

When her injured paw touched the ground, she made a little squeak and immediately pulled it against her body.

Having noticed that she was lagging behind, Scorpius glanced back at her and sighed when he saw what had happened. He walked back and scooped her up with another sigh.

"There're anti-Apparition wards on this place. We're going to have to go back to the front beige room before we can get out of here," he whispered to her so quietly that she probably wouldn't have been able to hear him if she wasn't a cat.

The rest of the short trip to the front room went off without a hitch, and no one seemed to notice the small pop Scorpius made as he Apparated them to the Manor.

Surprisingly little time had passed since Rose had snuck out of the Ministry, so it was well before five as they walked up the drive to the Manor. Hermione and Draco were still at work, leaving Rose and Scorpius free of interruptions.

Scorpius didn't put Rose down when he landed, so she was forced to let him carry her. She'd tried wriggling a little to give him the hint that she wanted down, but he only wrapped his arms around her more firmly and kept walking. To struggle anymore would have risked landing on her injured foot, and Rose really didn't want that, so she was reduced to glaring moodily at nothing while she bounced slightly with every step Scorpius took.

Her claws were always an option, but, once again, she'd risk landing on her poor paw. While it didn't hurt much anymore, the area was definitely tender and she didn't want to risk inflaming it with the jolt of her landing. If she clawed him to make him let her down, Scorpius would probably leave her there to walk back on her hurting foot. He wasn't very forgiving.

Eventually, he entered his room and set her on his bed. As Rose changed back, he raised an eyebrow at the ruffled blankets, and she blushed slightly. It was obvious that someone had been sleeping there.

"You left, I was waiting for you to come back," she mumbled, looking away.

She didn't see the mocking expression soften as he came to sit beside her. "I didn't mean to leave like that. It's just that it was _calling _me. I needed you to come and stop me from going to it, because nothing good was going to come from doing what it wanted."

"What was calling you?"

He looked towards her, seemingly surprised that she was asking. "The orb on the table."

"That's why you sent that letter?" she clarified.

"If anyone would have been capable of stopping me from going, it would have been you. No one's as stubborn as you."

Rose wasn't sure whether that was a compliment or an insult. Knowing Scorpius, it could be either or both.

"That explains why you left, but not why you were gone for almost a week," she said.

"When I got there, it was glowing and I couldn't _not _touch it - even knowing what happened the last time I did. I don't know what happened to me, but I woke up in a closet and found you on my way out. I think it may have knocked me out and one of the employees just shoved me somewhere I wouldn't get in the way before I came to."

Rose had been avoiding looking at her palm, not wanting to see the extent of the damage, but she had a bad feeling that she knew what she was going to see when she flipped her hand over. Just like on Scorpius' palm, her hand displayed three black dots arranged in a triangle.

She had a feeling the mark probably wasn't a good thing.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**A/N: Hello readers! It's after 4am. I'm so tired... I thought I should probably post this first though...**

**Thanks to Adele for betaing and everyone who reviewed!**

**To yay: I can't answer that right now, it'd ruin the surprise, sorry. It is explained later though. I'm glad I made your day!**

**~Frosty**

"What do these marks _mean_?" she asked, grabbing him by the wrist so she could hold their hands side by side.

Right in the middle of both their palms was the same grouping of three dots. At least she knew she wasn't the only one who had been stupid enough to touch the orb.

"I have no idea," Scorpius said, also looking at the matching marks, "But that snake bites people and then it calls you back and lures you into touching it again. It's going to call you eventually."

"We'll just have to keep an eye on each other, make sure we don't give in to the call," she said. She was sure it was doable if they were vigilant and determined. If she was anything, it was stubborn. They'd manage.

Her feeble attempts to convince herself weren't really working, but it was comforting that Scorpius was right there with her in the same sinking boat. Rose tilted her head to the side and leaned it on his shoulder, glad he was back. She wrinkled her nose in distaste when she caught a whiff of him. It smelt like he hadn't showered in days. Being locked in a closet in that dirty basement wasn't exactly conducive to a clean scent. He probably _hadn't _showered in days.

"You need a shower," she said. "And so do I," she added after glancing down at herself. She was covered in dirt from the floor, there were a few cobwebs clinging in her hair, and whatever Scorpius was covered in was probably smeared all over her from being carried and pressed against him.

Scorpius raised his eyebrows at her.

"_Separately_," she said.

* * *

><p>After she showered and dressed, Rose went right back to Scorpius' room. She was half terrified that he would go missing again. He should know better than to just disappear on her like that. He was the one who said Michael should take her with him if he was going to leave.<p>

Rose conveniently ignored the fact that Scorpius' departure hadn't been voluntary by any stretch of the imagination. Her feelings weren't logical and they had been distraught at his absence.

She'd been a mess while he was gone, for the same reasons she'd been one when Michael left; nightmares plaguing her almost every night and an ache in her chest reminding her that something wasn't right, that someone important had left. It had been infinitely worse when Scorpius was gone, because there hadn't been anyone there for her to stay with, she'd been left to deal with her fears alone.

When she slipped into Scorpius' room, he was still there, sprawled out on his bed. He didn't seem surprised in the least that she was in his room. In fact, he lazily lifted his arm slightly in a silent invitation for her to join him.

Rose allowed herself to snuggle up against him. It was comforting to feel him there, a silent reassurance in every one of his breaths.

Whatever that snake had done to her hand was making her feel exhausted, and it didn't take very long for her eyelids to start to droop despite her fears about Scorpius disappearing again and her run-in with the snake.

"Is this how you felt when it bit you a while ago?" she asked sleepily.

"Completely exhausted?" He nodded, "Yeah. You get used to it after a while."

"It's like it's draining all my energy," she said, her head getting too heavy for her neck to support. It dipped and rested on Scorpius' chest, and she didn't have the energy to lift it again.

* * *

><p>Rose woke up, her body stiff and sluggish, as if she'd been sleeping for a long time, but she was almost as tired as she'd been when she'd fallen asleep. Groaning slightly, she shifted. In her slumber she'd been clutching Scorpius to her tightly, as if she'd been dreaming that he'd disappeared and tried to stop him from leaving.<p>

While she was aware that she was clingy and pathetic much of the time, she wasn't really sure what she could do to stop the behaviour short of getting a personality transplant and having her past completely wiped from her mind.

"It's a wonder I put up with you, I think you were holding on so tightly that I'm covered in bruises," Scorpius complained. Her position couldn't have been bothering him all the much; he had an arm slung casually around her shoulders, keeping her in a comfortable position.

"Don't be such a baby, I wasn't holding-" her sentence broke off as she caught sight of his face.

Where she'd punched him earlier had swelled and darkened, giving him a rather impressive black eye. She hadn't thought she'd had the strength to do so much damage. Her state had been feeble at best when she'd punched him. The boy must bruise like a peach for her little punch to have left such an impressive mark.

"What are you looking at?" he asked, uncomfortable because she'd been staring at him for too long.

"I've given you a rather nasty black eye," she said, reaching up to skim a fingertip along the bruised flesh.

He flinched slightly even at the barely-there touch. "You don't have to sound so proud."

Rose ignored his sulky comment. He'd worried her to death and she was entitled to a little sharing of the pain. Maybe next time he'd think twice before... being taken away against his will for several days next time.

Okay, so her logic hadn't been at its sharpest when she'd punched him, and it hadn't been very nice of her to deck him immediately after he saved her from that snake. In her defence, she'd probably only been a few days away from some sort of breakdown brought on by sleep deprivation and worry. Rose didn't fare well when people left her - nightmares and all that - and without Scorpius there to make her feel better when she had them, she'd been lost.

Odd. She'd been lost without him. Even thinking it sounded strange, like some lightning bolt should come down from the sky and zap her for daring to think such a ridiculous thought. But it wasn't ridiculous, it was the truth.

Still absently tracing her fingertip along the edge of the bruise, Rose noted the Scorpius didn't seem to mind in the least that she was completely invading his personal space. In fact, he'd tensed when she'd awoken but was gradually relaxing again. He hadn't even made a fuss about the black eye she'd given him. Just a few years ago, he would have punched her right back. She liked to think that they were growing, increasing in maturity.

"Michael proposed because he wanted me to move to India with him," Rose commented offhandedly.

Scorpius wasn't one of her girlfriends – as he'd told her on several occasions - and as such didn't want to hear her "pointless female blathering", which basically encompassed anything that would constitute "girl talk". However, she felt like he might have a personal investment in this particular piece of information. After all, he _had _been the one who insisted she needed to talk with Michael, and he needed to know why she hadn't been able to answer his letter immediately.

"That's why I couldn't answer your letter when you sent it," she elaborated, "I was dumping him."

"Good for you," he said.

For some reason, Rose thought he'd be a little happier with her for taking his suggestion. Yet here he was, not even bothering to scrounge up a smug smile. It was kind of disappointing.

She had her head tilted and was frowning at him when her stomach broke her focus by growling loudly. His issue could be sorted later; she needed food first and probably more sleep before she was in any condition to try and work out what was going on in the labyrinthine channels of him mind.

"I suppose it's almost time for supper," he commented.

Blindly groping above her head, Rose grabbed a pillow and squished it against her face, hiding. "Mum's going to kill me when she sees me again," she groaned.

Without even moving the smothering pillow to see him, she knew Scorpius was looking at her curiously. She could _feel_ his inquisitive expression.

"I kind of left work early to find you," she mumbled into the pillow. "It was probably my final strike in a long line of warnings stating that I need a better attitude. Apparently they'd hoped I'd be a beaming bundle of sunshine all the time. I think mum may have told a few white lies to get me my interview."

Scorpius snorted. "What happened to that perky suck-up you turn into around employers?"

"She left with you. At work, they call me 'Wrathful Weasley' behind my back. They believe I can't hear them talking if they're safely stowed away behind a stack of boxes or hiding in their cubicle. For people with magic at their disposal, they seem to be pretty reluctant to actually _use _it."

It was Scorpius' stomach that rumbled this time, interrupting their conversation. Not one to be outdone, Rose's stomach voiced its displeasure at its emptiness once more, this time louder than previously.

Groaning, he stood from the bed, pulling Rose with him. "Let's go get some dinner before I start worrying that you're just seeing me as one big steak and are about to go all 'Wrathful Weasley' on me."

She glared. The moment she'd told him about that nickname, she'd known it would only be a matter of time before he used it.

"Oh, by the way, I told them about us sleeping together," Rose said when they were about halfway down the stairs in the foyer.

When he paled and stopped walking, she realized she'd misunderstood her. Whose idea had it been to give a completely innocent act and a... not nearly as innocent act the same name? There had to be someone, somewhere with a list who was in charge of these things. That guy really needed to be fired.

"Not _that_," she said impatiently. Did he really think she'd reveal the extent of her indiscretions without extenuating circumstances? Well, extenuating circumstances beyond the prolonged and unexplained disappearance of Scorpius, obviously. "They know I have bad dreams and accidentally snuck into your room one night and that I've been going back since."

"Don't _scare _me like that!" Scorpius grumbled. "Father already thinks I'm a no good layabout, and he literally doesn't even know the half of it, could you imagine what he'd do if he discovered everything?"

Rose pretended to think about it. "Well, considering he sent you to your tyrant of a grandfather for a few misdemeanours, he'd probably resurrect Voldemort and hand you over as a Death Eater. See if that would 'straighten you out'."

His face twisted into a combination of amusement and horror. Lots of people were still very sensitive about the mention of Voldemort, veterans of the recent war more so than others. Both Rose and Scorpius had learned very young that the war was not to be mentioned – ever. Hermione and Draco liked to spend most of their time pretending that they'd had perfectly normal childhoods. How Draco thought she'd believe that he'd led a normal childhood when she'd met Lucius, Rose would never know.

"Don't let them hear you talking like that," Scorpius warned. He knew just as well as she did not to bring up the war.

They stopped in front of the doors leading into the kitchen.

"Maybe I should go in there first and explain things to them – an edited version, of course. We don't want mum catching sight of you and going into early labour or something," Rose said, her hand already on the door handle.

She wasn't going to give him much choice in the matter. Pushing past him, Rose opened the door and slipped inside. She made sure to leave the door open a crack so Scorpius would be able to hear her when she called him in. It was with relief that she realized he was going to listen to her and go along with her plan.

Hermione started lecturing the minute she caught sight of her daughter. "I heard you were missing at work today. They said you walked out around lunchtime with a file and never came back."

Shite! Rose had forgotten she'd done that. So much had happened since then that it hadn't even crossed her mind that her mum would be upset about the work hours she'd missed. It wasn't like the filing she did was _important _or anything.

"I vouched for you to get you that job, and you don't even bother to _stay there_!" Hermione continued, her voice rising in pitch.

"I had a good reason," Rose defended herself.

Hermione crossed her arms. "I know you've been worried about Scorpius, but that isn't a good enough reason to just drop your responsibilities like they don't mean anything. You have to carry on with life, Scorpius will come back eventually."

The entire time, Draco sat there stoically, nodding along with his wife. He seemed content to just let her get the anger out of her system. Rose suspected it was because Hermione would start yelling at _him _if he tried to get her to calm herself.

"I wasn't worried about him, I went to get him," Rose said simply.

_That _stopped Hermione's lecturing. Her eyes widened and she stared at her daughter in shock, not entirely sure that she'd heard properly.

"You found him?" Draco asked, making himself heard for the first time since Rose had entered.

Rose nodded. Finding words inadequate, she pushed the door open and grabbed Scorpius' wrist, dragging him into the room. He resisted slightly, probably a tad nervous about facing his father after going missing.

"Scorpius!" Hermione exclaimed - it was really more of a shriek. She stood and moved to him, looking like she wanted to hug him in a tight, Molly-style squeeze, but she knew better. Her hands fluttered towards his black eye and then back down to her sides as she visibly struggled against the desire to fuss over him. "What happened to you?" she asked.

"Rose wasn't happy with me for disappearing," Scorpius explained, shooting the redhead a rueful look. He looked slightly uncomfortable under the force of Hermione's fussing, but it was his father who really held his attention. Scorpius kept shooting wary glances towards the older man.

Rose knew the Malfoys weren't the most forgiving when it came to punishments, Scorpius' job being a prime example. Draco wasn't as bad as his father, but by Hermione's standards, he was a little harsh. Rose hoped that her mum would be there when Draco decided to speak with his son to mediate and talk reason into him.

With a clatter, Draco stood from the table. "My office, now."

Scorpius shot Rose a pained look while he followed his father out of the room.

When Hermione stayed where she was, Rose's hopes were dashed. Scorpius was going to have to face his father alone. Maybe Draco would listen to reason...

"Where did you find him?" Hermione asked when they were alone.

Figuring she may as well get something to eat while she explained, Rose settled at the table, piling food on her plate as her mum took her own seat again and waited. Before she said anything, Rose took a few bites to stop her stomach from rumbling. It was really starting to annoy her.

Hermione was impatient when it came to knowledge she wanted, and she really wanted to know what was going on with her stepson. "Where did you find him?" she repeated.

"In a lot of trouble," Rose said cryptically. It wasn't her place to go tattling to her mum just because Scorpius was in over his head. Hermione would probably just lock them in their rooms until she'd looked up several things in the library, and Rose didn't want to just let her mum take care of everything. They were never going to respect her if she was always running to her mummy for help.

Rose was sure she could handle the situation give enough time. And if she couldn't, chances were that she'd be dead. The dead were much too... deceased for them to be able to hear Hermione's "You should have let me help".

"Rose, I'm worried about you." Hermione looked like she wanted to press for more information, but she saw the firm set of her daughter's jaw. It was the same look Ron used to get when there was a matter he wasn't willing to bend on. She could nag all night, but Rose wasn't going to tell her a word more on the topic if she didn't want to.

Huffing in frustration, Hermione impatiently pushed her hair out of the way and looked her daughter over. "Fine, I'll let you deal with it, but promise me you'll come to me for help if you get in over your head?"

Her mouth too full to talk, Rose just nodded. It wasn't really a lie if she didn't voice it, right?

Hermione sagged slightly in her chair, relieved. She would start her research with the spots on Scorpius' hand and move from there. When Rose asked, she'd be able to present all of the information to her daughter. And if she took too long to ask, Hermione just might give her the information anyway.

"Did you really punch him?" Hermione asked after a few beats of silence.

* * *

><p>Rose was almost finished her plate when Scorpius and Draco came back into the room, neither of them looking very happy.<p>

Scorpius sullenly settled in the chair beside Rose while his father took a seat across the table, frowning thunderously at his son.

"Scorpius has something he'd like to say," Draco announced, still frowning at the younger blond.

Glaring at his father, Scorpius sat up straighter in his chair. "I'm sorry for worrying you with my irresponsible behaviour, Hermione. It won't happen again," he recited.

The lines were delivered robotically, leaving no doubt that he'd been ordered to say them. However, the obviously false apology seemed to be enough to satisfy the elder Malfoy

Not wanting to leave the two Malfoy men alone together with such anger and tension crackling in the air, both Hermione and Rose sat at the dinner table long after they were finished eating while they waited for the other two to finish.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**A/N: Hello readers! Look! A new chapter!**

**As always, thanks to all the lovely people who took the time to review, and thanks to Adele for betaing! **

**Here's an extra sentence so not all of the ones in my a/n end in an exclamation point.**

**~Frosty**

That night, Rose didn't even bother with the pretence of going to her own room; she followed Scorpius to his right after dinner.

"What did Draco have to say?" she asked, arranging the pillows into a backrest against the headboard so she could recline comfortably.

Scorpius flopped on his stomach beside her, snatching one of his pillows for himself with a frown at her for hogging them all. "He refuses to believe that Lucius is up to no good. He thinks I was on a bender and just don't want to admit to it."

Even if she hadn't seen the evidence of obviously Dark objects sitting in a building Lucius owned, just waiting to do people harm, Rose would have given Scorpius the benefit of the doubt and at least investigated what he claimed. Unlike Draco, Rose knew that Scorpius, while irresponsible most of the time, _did _have a sense of responsibility in there buried under alcohol and a purposefully infuriating personality.

"That's ridiculous," she snapped. "Even completely drunk you wouldn't make up something like that."

"That's not even the worst of it. He accused me of trying to corrupt you."

Rose snorted, but he wasn't done.

"He told me if I even _thought _something that wasn't entirely platonic regarding you, he would personally murder me. And that Hermione's pregnant, so he doesn't have to worry about keeping me alive, because he's going to have another heir."

Her snort morphed into all out laughter while Scorpius scowled at her. It was just such a _bad _threat. Draco was a lot of talk and not all that much action, so she wasn't worried that Draco would actually _kill_ Scorpius, but disinheriting him was a concern.

"You only think it's funny because you haven't had to deal with botched parenting for years," he muttered.

Immediately, Rose's laughter stopped.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Scorpius knew he shouldn't have said that, but he didn't like being laughed at and it had just come out...

"Rose..." he said, but she'd already rolled over, facing away from him. He repeated her name to her back, sighing softly when she remained unresponsive.

After a while, Rose tired of his prodding. "Go to sleep, Scorpius," she said, turning out the lights with her wand. She'd only yell at him if he tried to talk to her now. If he remained silent, she was willing to overlook his slip and just sleep.

It was early, but whatever that snake had done was making her tired again and she couldn't imagine how tired Scorpius was after dealing with it for weeks. Maybe he'd built up a resistance to it after a while and she would as well. Somehow she doubted that.

People always talked about 'catching up on sleep', but Rose had learned that sleep wasn't really something that you could avoid and then catch up on later by getting an extra hour here and there. It was something you had to give a good chunk of your time, and the longer you put it off, the more you needed to sleep.

She figured the curse was like staying up all night and missing all those hours of sleep; the more time she spent sleeping, the longer she'd be able to keep alert during the day.

Scorpius probably didn't fall asleep like she'd commanded him, but he did stop bothering her. He was at least still and silent.

Unfortunately, Rose just couldn't seem to do the same. She kept shifting her suddenly restless legs and shuffling her blankets into more comfortable positions. Despite how tired she was, Rose found herself unable to sleep. There were so many thoughts swirling around her head that even with her eyes closed, sleep was held at bay by the chaos inside her skull. Not to mention she'd had a nap not so long ago. She was physically exhausted, but mentally alert and fully awake. There was no state more frustrating than the one Rose was fighting against. Eyes flashing open in annoyance, she glared at the wall and then at her hand as she caught sight of the darker shadow that was the snake bite mark.

She held her hand in front of her face, running her index finger over the black dots. The normal grooves and lines of her palm were still there; underneath the black dots her hand was the same hand she'd been looking at all of her life.

But it wasn't the same hand.

Those three small dots marred her otherwise smooth skin. They weren't raised bumps or anything, if she closed her eyes she almost wouldn't know they were there - except that they radiated a coldness that she could feel going up her arm and towards her heart. It was suffocating and terrifying, yet so subtle that she didn't notice unless she was focusing on it.

Scorpius, who must have seen the way she was staring at her hand, reached over and grasped it, blocking her palm from sight.

"Do you think it's going to kill us?" she asked, not having to specify what she was talking about. Her earlier irritation was pushed aside in favour of the more pressing matter they were facing.

He released her hand to wrap an arm around her waist and pull her against him before entwining their fingers once again. While she was slightly comforted, it wasn't enough to relieve any of the worried thoughts assaulting her poor brain.

"It's possible. Don't think about it."

* * *

><p>"Draco told me about the talk he had with Scorpius," Hermione said the next morning as she and Rose were eating breakfast. It was the weekend, but Draco had been called into work. Rose had climbed out of bed early that morning, before Scorpius was even awake. He'd yet to show himself, probably wanting to stay in bed as long as physically possible.<p>

"I heard about it," Rose said noncommittally.

Hermione poked at the food on her plate with her fork. "I'm worried about Scorpius," she said.

"That makes two of us."

"No," Hermione shook her head and set her fork down so she could wave her hands for emphasis, "I'm _really _worried about him. Last night I finally remembered where it was that I saw the marking on his palm."

Rose didn't realize it, but she'd put her fork down as well so she could give her mum her full attention. She suddenly didn't have much of an appetite anyway.

"It's from a very Dark object," Hermione continued. "The object was made centuries ago by a horrible man who wanted to destroy all those who tried to stop his evil plans. None of the books mention what his plans were, only that many died trying to stop him.

"Anyway, he was tired of his plans being foiled, so he invented a horrible curse and cast it on a common garden snake from his yard. The snake was encased in a pearlescent globe that attracted anyone who entered his home and made them touch its surface. Inside the globe, the snake judged whoever touched it, and those who were pure of soul, it bit."

Feeling chilled to the bone, Rose tried to keep her voice steady. So far, this story wasn't sounding like there was a happy, shiny conclusion at the end. She'd kind of been hoping for an '_and they all lived happily ever after' _in her story.

"What does the snake bite do?"

"That's the worst part," Hermione said sadly. "It slowly consumes those pure souls, first exhausting the victims as it steals their life-force and then it will eventually drain away the entire thing and killing the victim."

Shaking now, Rose asked the question she wasn't sure she wanted answered, but desperately needed to know. "Is there a way to stop it?" Her voice was barely a whisper, but Hermione heard it.

"There were mentions that destroying the snake _may_ release the victims from its curse, but it was all speculation, and the curse itself makes that snake virtually indestructible," Hermione said apologetically. "It's been known to kill people in pairs, sometimes holding one of them captive until another one comes along. No one's sure why this happens, but the theory is that souls connected in some way are much more powerful."

Rose's stomach dropped as the walls seemed to close in on her as everything after "virtually indestructible" faded into the white noise that was all she was hearing. She was going to die. Scorpius was as well.

Seeming to think her daughter's panic was purely based on concern over Scorpius, Hermione tried to comfort her. "Don't worry Rose, we'll think of something," she said softly.

Rose wasn't listening; she didn't even hear her mother's attempts at soothing her. Something in her demanded that she not just _sit_ at the table and listen to her mum pointlessly blather on about solutions to the problem that probably wouldn't work. Just moments ago, Hermione had said that those bitten would die with almost no hope of saving themselves, so her comfort seemed kind of empty following that.

She was going to die.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Hermione asked. She'd expected her daughter to join her in throwing themselves into books to find an answer, but instead Rose looked like she'd been punched in the stomach.

Standing from the table so quickly, that her chair clattered to the floor, Rose rushed from the room, ignoring Hermione's attempts to call her back.

She didn't get far past the kitchen door when a hand wrapped around her wrist and stopped her flight. Rose looked up to see the troubled eyes and sleep-tousled hair of Scorpius. He was gazing at her questioningly, wondering what it was that had upset her so badly.

With a gasping half-sob, she threw herself at him. He would understand; he wouldn't try to comfort her with empty promises of 'thinking of something'. Instead, he stood there quietly, letting her press her face to his chest while she tried to get herself under control.

His hand came up to rub small circles on her lower back. He'd gotten better at consoling a hysterical Rose since that first night he'd tried to help. It was second nature now; stop Rose from crying, tell her to go back to sleep, then go back to sleep himself. In the morning, he could give her hell for getting so worked up about it in the first place.

Hermione came out of the kitchen then, puffing slightly at the effort from rushing after her daughter. She froze when she saw Scorpius was there, and her eyebrows drew together slightly.

"How much of that did you hear?" she asked him quietly, apologetic. That wasn't how she'd wanted to tell him. Hermione had thought that if she told Rose first, she'd be able to be there for Scorpius while Hermione revealed the truth to him gently, with emphasis on finding a solution before it became fatal.

"Enough," he said.

Hermione observed the two children for a moment. "I can't help but think that this should be the other way around," she said to Scorpius since Rose wasn't in a state to pay attention. "You're the one in danger, yet you're the calm one."

Pulling away slightly, Rose looked up at him, her face splotchy and wet from crying. "Mum's right. How are you so calm?" she demanded. "We've just been handed a death sentence!"

He shrugged. "I've had longer to deal with the idea, and one of us needs to be at least marginally coherent if we're going to come up with a solution."

Hermione made a squeaking sound that drew their attention to her.

"We?" Hermione asked weakly, staring at her daughter. The older woman looked like she was going to need a chair in the very near future or else she'd just fall to the floor. "Rose, you said 'we' as if you're in trouble too."

Losing one of them would be bad enough, Hermione wasn't sure she could handle losing both of them, and at the same time.

Unclenching one of her hands from Scorpius' shirt, Rose stretched it towards her mum. Slowly, she tilted her hand and opened her fingers. Showing her mum her palm felt almost wrong after spending so much time over the past few meals together carefully avoiding any movements that would expose the mark there. Even now she wanted to cradle it to her chest and hide it from the world like the horrible, dark thing it was. Hiding wouldn't make anything better, but it would make her _feel _better.

Hermione rushed forward and grabbed the hand, running her fingers over the black spots. She seemed to be trying to wipe them off. Unfortunately, this wasn't something that she could just lick her finger and then rub at until it was gone like mothers everywhere seemed to do for specks of dirt. This was much more permanent than that.

"When did this happen?" Hermione demanded, still scrubbing at the spots.

As she turned her body to face her mum, Rose pulled her hand from the woman's grasp. She didn't need irritated skin in addition to the death mark she sported.

"I've only had it for a few days," Rose said. Her tears were completely forgotten. Hermione looked on the verge of a breakdown and Rose needed to be in control of her emotions if she was going to calm her down. For the baby's sake at the very least, Hermione needed to stop panicking.

Eyes narrowed, Hermione quickly connected the dots in her head before her eyes moved to Scorpius accusingly. "This is _your _fault."

He nodded, accepting the accusation.

Startled, Rose looked back at him. He'd accepted that accusation as if he already blamed himself. She hadn't realized he'd felt like that. He was a _moron_ for thinking like that.

"It's _not_," Rose insisted, turning her head slightly to catch Scorpius with her stern look as well. "I'm the idiot who went where I shouldn't have and touched something that I _really _shouldn't have. Scorpius had nothing to do with it."

"I'm the reason you were there in the first place," he said, almost trying to convince her to see his way of thinking. He was being stupid.

Rose ignored the beseeching expression in his eyes. For some insane reason, he _wanted _her to blame him; to hate him. This better not be some sort of screwy punishing himself by pushing her away type thing, she wasn't going to let him.

"Perhaps, but you weren't there of your own volition. If we're going to blame anyone, let's make it Lucius," Rose insisted. She didn't want to hear any more of his ridiculousness. Lucius was the villain and she wasn't going to let Scorpius place himself into that role. Her attention turned to her mum. "I know you're distraught and everything, but that doesn't make it acceptable to put that kind of guilt on his shoulders, especially since it was apparently already there."

"You're right, Rose," Hermione said, looking miserable and ashamed. She reached for her daughter and hugged her tightly. "I just don't want to lose you."

Hermione was not playing favourites with her children. Had she believed that Scorpius would allow the contact, she would have crushed him in a hug as well. When they had first moved into the Manor, after she had married Draco, Hermione had tried to treat Scorpius as she would her own children, frequent hugs and all, but Scorpius had always stepped away from her, shying from the contact like a skittish rabbit from a loud sound. Eventually, she'd learned not to even try.

Turning watery brown eyes on her stepson over her daughter's shoulder, Hermione apologised to him. "I'm sorry Scorpius, I didn't mean that."

He nodded, but his eyes said he _did _mean what he'd said. He blamed himself for Rose's imminent demise.

Rose untangled herself from her mum, knowing that Hermione would stand there squeezing her for quite a long time if left to her own devices. Something about holding her children close allowed her the impression that they would be safe as long as they were in her arms. It was false, but it comforted her briefly.

"I've contacted Headmistress McGonagall, and she's agreed that Hugo can come home for a weekend. He's been very worried about you, Scorpius," Hermione said as Rose started to walk away, Scorpius close on her heels. "He'll be here in a few hours."

"I wanted to have some family time," she said by way of explanation.

_Before you die_, Rose finished in her head. Hermione didn't know how long Scorpius - and now Rose - had left before they died, and she didn't want Hugo to be away at school, unable to say a proper goodbye, when it happened.

"Stop being morbid," Scorpius muttered. He could just see Rose's profile and had been watching the expressions flutter over her features one after the other. He knew that whatever she was thinking, it certainly wasn't upbeat.

"I'm sorry if it's heard to be upbeat after I was just told that I'm going to die," she snapped, her anger not really directed at him, but at the world in general.

She wasn't even twenty yet, she was too young to die! Well, not technically, but she hadn't even managed to sort out her life yet, and now she was expected to just wait around for her soul to be leeched out from her body?

No.

Her parents had fought off the odds and managed to come out on top of a war against one of the most powerful Dark wizards in history, and they'd been younger than her when they did it. She wasn't going to just let this happen.

Scorpius was still watching her, and the resolved expression on her face was worrying. "What are you planning?" he asked warily. It was probably something that was going to get the both of them in trouble on top of being doomed. He wasn't against trouble, in fact, he'd coveted at one point, but he wanted his last days to be peaceful.

"Does your grandfather know you've been bitten?" She pretended she hadn't heard his question, needing an answer to hers before she could give her own.

"He said I was making it up, that none of his other employees had ever claimed they'd been bitten by a snake in one of the storage rooms."

Rose nodded, that sounded like Lucius, and she certainly doubted that he employed people that could be called morally upstanding by any stretch of the imagination, much less pure of soul.

"We're going to fight back," she said in answer to his earlier question. "You're going to talk to your grandfather and I'm going to steal a Dark object from a former Dark wizard."

Paling slightly, he nodded. He'd expected it to be something along those lines – something completely crazy.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**A/N: Next chapter! A huge thanks to all the people who take the time to review. Also to Adele, who takes even longer than that and edits every chapter.**

**~Frosty**

Rose had read her share of crime novels in her time, but she'd never actually thought to use the information in any sort of practical application. If her death wasn't looming over her head, she'd be kind of excited about "casing a joint".

Scorpius, however, was being less than enthusiastic. "Do you know what happens to people who steal from my grandfather?" he demanded, glancing around the room uncomfortably. Lucius obviously inspired fear in his employees – his grandson included. She couldn't blame poor Scorpius really, with a man like Lucius as his grandfather he had to have learned at a young age that his grandfather was not a man to be trifled with.

And yet here she was, fully intending to trifle away and dragging him along with her.

She shook her head, not really listening to him while he became increasingly distraught.

"I didn't think so," he said, still warily watching pretty much everything. "I don't either, _because they're never seen again_. They disappear, completely. All of them."

Standing in her closet, Rose was dressing the part of cat burglar, the attire learned from watching too many movies and all of those crime novels she'd read. Her pants, boots and sweater were all black and tight fitting so they wouldn't impede her movement. The outfit made her more confident about breaking into the horrible building that had started all their trouble with the curse.

"This isn't Halloween, Rose!" Scorpius practically shouted when he saw what she was wearing. "He will _kill_ us for doing this. You don't even have Malfoy blood protecting you from his wrath, so he'll probably make your death more painful."

"I always knew the old bastard had a soft spot for me," she said sarcastically. Lucius had refused to even acknowledge that her mum was married to his son much less that Rose was now part of his family.

On the verge of pulling his hair out in frustration, Scorpius scowled at her. "I'm not going along with this."

She completely ignored him, just as she'd been doing since she'd voiced her plan and he's started his objections. "I'm going to go poke around, see what I can see. Meet me there in an hour."

She Apparated away before he could grab her and attempt to stop her. Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission and all that jazz.

* * *

><p>If the mark on his palm didn't kill him, his stepsister was going to be the death of him for sure. Scorpius spent a moment scowling at the spot Rose had just vacated and going through his entire impressive vocabulary of profanities in a muttered string. It didn't accomplish anything, and it didn't make him feel better like he'd hoped.<p>

He glanced at his watch to note the time before grabbing a pack of cigarettes and heading for Rose's bedroom window. If he showed up too soon while she was still out in the open, then he could very easily get her killed. He was going to have to wait until she'd told him to appear, then, if she wasn't already dead, he was going to kill her himself.

It was a tough position she'd put him in, and he wouldn't soon forget it. He hated waiting around like this, with nothing better to do than smoke his way through a pack of cigarettes and hope for the best. As a Malfoy, he wasn't very good at the whole optimism thing.

Not long after he'd finally settled on the roof, Hugo found him. The younger man was pale and wide-eyed, the expression making him look several years younger than he actually was. Scorpius sighed internally; Hermione had told him then.

"Where's Rose?" were the first words out of Hugo's mouth. He kept looking around as if she was about to pop out from a corner of the roof and yell "surprise".

"Off getting into trouble," Scorpius said. He shifted over to make room for Hugo when the redhead climbed out the window to join him on the roof. Taking another drag from his cigarette, Scorpius resigned himself to dealing with his stepbrother.

Hugo didn't ask him to elaborate on the whereabouts of his sister, he knew there was no point trying to pry information out of someone as closemouthed as Scorpius. If he felt that Hugo needed to know, then Scorpius would tell him.

The redhead waited a moment, but apparently he didn't need to know. Scorpius just continued to smoke, moodily glowering at everything.

"Mum told me about the marks you and Rose have," Hugo said after he'd managed to settle himself on the roof. Unlike Scorpius, Hugo didn't like heights, so being so far off of the ground with no safety rail to make sure he didn't plummet onto the grass below made him extremely nervous.

Scorpius just nodded. He'd figured she would, Hermione didn't believe that depriving her children of important information was any way to raise them. If there was something they should know, she told them.

"Can I have one of those?" Hugo asked, gesturing to the package sitting beside Scorpius.

"Your sister would kill me if she found out."

Hugo grabbed the package and took one. "Since when has that stopped either of us?"

"She won't actually kill _you_," Scorpius muttered, "_I'm _the one she'd blame." Nevertheless, he leaned over and lit the cigarette Hugo was holding. He was probably dead anyway, what did it matter if he sped it up a little?

"She won't kill you either," Hugo reassured him. "She tries to hide it, but she actually likes you. If she didn't, she wouldn't even bother yelling at you."

Scorpius rolled his eyes; if yelling meant that Rose cared about him, she must care _a lot_, because she always seemed to be yelling.

Looking dubiously at the smoking cigarette in his hands, Hugo put it to his lips and took a big breath. The embers on the tip of his cigarette burned red briefly and then faded back into a more subdued smouldering. Immediately, he started coughing and hacking, his body trying to expel all the smoke from his lungs.

Laughing a little, Scorpius thumped ineffectively him on the back.

"Those things are _disgusting_," Hugo rasped. "How can you _like_ them?"

Scorpius shrugged, not wanting to waste his breath and explain that it wasn't the cigarettes themselves that he liked, but the comfort they provided. The act of lighting them and bringing them to his lips, of inhaling the sweet smoke was soothing. By the time the nicotine was in his bloodstream, he was always more relaxed than he'd been when he lit them.

There was comfort in the familiarity of the actions as well as the nicotine fix.

"You're extra close-mouthed today," Hugo observed.

They weren't friends and rarely talked, but their families had joined together years ago, and they'd been thrown together plenty of times since then. They were in each other's company frequently enough to develop a certain camaraderie.

Scorpius glanced at his watch. It had only been forty minutes since Rose had left. He was going to have to ditch Hugo sometime in the next little while. The younger man was sure to ask too many questions and insist on coming along if he got them. Rose would _not _like that, and Scorpius didn't want to risk someone else getting bitten by that foul snake.

* * *

><p>Rose was crouched under the unattended desk in the beige room, waiting for Scorpius to appear. It had to have been almost an hour by now, right? While as a cat, she was much more equipped for staring pointlessly at things for hours on end, even she was starting to get bored. It would probably be less of an excruciatingly boring wait if the room hadn't been so... <em>beige<em>.

A houseplant or a fish tank; that was all she asked. Her mouth started to water at the thought of fish. Those shiny, darting shapes just under the water, taunting her and always out of reach. She would just have to stick her paw in there and extend her claws. With patience, she could catch one and bring it out of the water, where she had the advantage.

Rose shook herself out of the fantasy before she started purring over the idea of gorging herself on fish innards. That would be embarrassing _and _dangerous should someone hear the sound.

She was already finished her "casing the joint" adventure. If she'd known there would be this much pointless waiting involved, she would have brought something to entertain her, if only for her sanity. Those fish imaginings were going to haunt her for a while.

As a cat, she'd slunk around all the rooms in the building she could access without knowing the proper unlocking spell, using wandless magic to open doors for herself. She had never appreciated thumbs so much as she did then after spending so much time trying to snoop around without them.

To her knowledge, the only person in the place was Lucius. There were no minions at work today that she had come across, and in a place so small, she found it unlikely that she'd merely missed them. Maybe Lucius had given them the weekend off for whatever debauchery the criminals usually got up to, or maybe he'd killed them all. Rose took a moment to indulge her curiosity and let it come up with all the possible reasons for the complete absence of any life besides Lucius.

After that brief yet disturbing reprieve from her boredom, she went over the plan once more. She was going to have Scorpius talk to his grandfather as a distraction while she took the foul orb away from the place. It was simple, but she was pretty sure Lucius hadn't thought anyone would have the gall to just steal the darkest object he had and carry it out right under his nose. The simplicity of her plan was either going to work or speed up the inevitable and get her killed.

When Scorpius opened the door and stepped inside the room, Rose was at first relieved that the waiting was over and it was time for action, and then her brother followed behind the blond and she was suddenly _furious_.

* * *

><p>Scorpius stopped walking and swore viciously, making Hugo turn to him with concern. The redhead had to fight not to laugh when he saw that there was a little tabby cat behind his stepbrother, standing on her back paws so she could dig her nails deep into Scorpius' calves.<p>

"He grabbed onto me as I tried to Apparate away and then refused to go back home. I have nothing to do with his presence here," Scorpius said to the cat, confusing Hugo to no end. When had Scorpius gone insane?

The cat held firm, making Scorpius swear some more and wince when he tried to move away from the razor sharp claws embedded in his flesh.

"Hugo, tell the bloody cat I had no idea that you were following me," Scorpius ground out. He knew struggling was futile and that he only had moments before Rose started to bite as well as claw him.

Bewildered, Hugo obeyed, feeling a little silly to be talking to the angry little tabby. "Cat, I was worried that Scorpius was doing something stupid and was going to end up getting himself killed, so I followed him."

He glanced towards Scorpius, wondering if he should continue. Scorpius' encouraging nod and the cat's intelligent eyes made him feel like less of an idiot as he continued. "It's my sister, you see. She makes these plans and other people get sucked into her schemes. I thought she could be in trouble and Scorpius needs help getting her out of it."

Releasing her hold on the blond, the cat went up to Hugo and swatted his ankles.

"She's saying you're an idiot for getting involved," Scorpius explained. "And I believe she's insisting you go home right now and ordering you not to worry about your sister, she can take care of herself."

Rose looked up at Scorpius and nodded her thanks. That had been almost exactly what she'd been trying to say to Hugo. There were more threats of shredding his ankles with her claws mixed into her version, but Scorpius had translated the basic meaning of her actions.

Warily, Hugo watched both Scorpius and the cat out of the corner of his eyes. There was something weird going on there... Scorpius was either off his medication – medication Hugo was pretty sure didn't exist - or there was something just plain unusual about that little cat.

"What now?" Hugo whispered, caught up in the excitement of the moment and not considering the danger he was in. He looked around, hoping for his sister to hop out from behind something – well, the desk, since there was nothing else in the room - and announce her plan of attack.

Rose growled and batted at his ankles some more, flattening her ears and flashing her teeth for effect. It was hard to properly scold the both of them when she wasn't even up to their knees and didn't actually have the use of her voice. They needed to go somewhere else and discuss the plan because she didn't want to have to turn back into herself and have the conference right on Lucius' doorstep.

"We need to hear what Rose found out," Scorpius said. "But not here," he added, voicing Rose's thoughts.

Without even _asking _her to follow him, he grabbed Rose by the scruff of her neck and picked her up, swinging her into his arms. She bristled at the undignified handling of her, but Scorpius ignored her. Her eyes narrowed and her ears flattened once more; she'd have some words for him once this thing was over. While she _looked _like a cat, she was still a person, perfectly capable of reason, yet he was treating her like some misbehaving stray. Granted, she probably would have clawed at him a little if he'd tried to pick her up nicely, but she still didn't appreciate the way he'd handled the situation.

Carrying her and paying no attention to the ferocity of her stare, Scorpius motioned for Hugo to leave before him and then followed the younger man back out the door.

"Where are we going? What about Rose?" Hugo asked, following behind him. His slightly shorter legs were having trouble keeping up with Scorpius' quick stride. He kept shooting glances over his shoulder in case Rose was following and he'd just missed her.

Scorpius led them away from Knocturn Alley and into Diagon Alley. They exited The Leaky Cauldron into Muggle London and continued down the sidewalk, dodging pedestrians. Some of the Muggles gave them strange looks; two very solemn men, the taller one carrying a cat that looked ready to rip someone's throat out, and the younger examining every shadow they passed with too much intensity for idle interest.

When Scorpius finally reached a deserted park surrounded by trees that shielded them completely from and passersby, he set Rose on the ground and took a few quick steps back in case she went for his ankles.

The moment her paws were touching the grass, Rose turned back into herself and rounded on Scorpius.

"Don't you _ever _do that to me again!" she yelled, her voice at its shrillest. Her mum wasn't the only one who could be terrifying when furious. "Just because I'm sometimes less than a foot tall doesn't mean you can just swing me around like I don't have a mind of my own. I would have followed you if you'd _asked_." By this point, she was nose to chin with Scorpius and poking him in the chest. She almost wished for her claws again.

Scorpius stood there, letting her get the rage out of her system. When she'd run out of things to scold him for and his sternum was thoroughly bruised from her constant poking, Rose stood there, breathing heavily.

"You're an unregistered Animagus?" Hugo said, wide-eyed. He'd been hesitant to speak up sooner lest she turn that rage on him.

"Go home Hugo." Rose didn't break the glare she'd directed towards Scorpius.

Stubborn to the core just like his sister, Hugo refused to move. "I'm not going anywhere." He crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his chin up obstinately.

Scorpius tried to hide his amusement. Hugo looked just like his sister when he did that; they both got the look from their mother, who he had also seen wear that exact expression when something wasn't going her way.

"Hugo, I don't have time to argue with you," Rose growled. She finally looked away for Scorpius to level a threatening glare at her brother. Unfortunately, Hugo was a Weasley and was more than used to the wrath of the female half of his family. He paled a little, but didn't let his sister intimidate him.

Rose had been telling the truth when she'd said they didn't have time to argue with him. She'd heard Lucius in a Floo call saying he expected to see them around five, which meant that they didn't have long before his guests showed up. Not wanting to waste more time, she merely turned her back on her brother in a feeble attempt to block him out of the conversation.

"Lucius is the only one in there right now," she said to Scorpius. "You talk to him while I run in and take the orb. It shouldn't be able to do me any more harm." Rose shot a dark look at the marks on her palm.

"What am I supposed to tell him?"

"I don't know!" Rose said impatiently. "Improvise. Tell him you're running off to join the circus. Anything!"

Scorpius looked slightly unsure, but he nodded anyway. If there was anything he was good at, it was making up stories and passing them off as the truth. He'd been doing it for years.

"Good," Rose said. She grabbed onto Scorpius and Apparated them back to the shop, not giving Hugo time to grab onto them and come along like he'd apparently already done to Scorpius that day.

"Let's make this quick," Rose said in a rushed whisper as they stood in the beige room once again. "I should only need ten minutes or so."

She turned to leave, but Scorpius stopped her with a hand on her wrist.

"Rose, be careful," he said.

She pulled his hand off of her, giving his fingers a slight squeeze in an attempt to calm some of the panic she saw in his eyes. It probably mirrored what he saw in her own.

"You too."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**A/N: Hello readers! Look, another chapter! **

**Thanks to all the wonderful people who reviewed, and also to Adele for betaing.**

**~Frosty**

Scorpius and Rose made their way down the rickety stairs to the lower level of Lucius' business together, Rose as a cat so Lucius would only hear one pair of footsteps approaching – if he heard anything at all. When Rose had peeked in on him earlier, he hadn't seemed interested in anything other than his work. She wouldn't have been surprised if he'd blocked out everything to better concentrate.

"Be careful," Scorpius whispered for the second time in as many minutes when they parted. The words were barely a breath of sound, so she wasn't worried that Lucius might hear. He must really be worried to say it once, much less twice.

Unable to answer with her voice, Rose head butted his ankle, trying to tell him to do the same. She was pretty sure he knew what she meant even without using words.

As she made her way to the room with the orb, she kept an ear turned behind her, listening as Scorpius quietly asked his grandfather for a word with him. Lucius didn't sound happy about it, but he told Scorpius to enter his office and close the door behind him. The old man didn't seem to be surprised the Scorpius had reappeared after being missing for days. Rose wasn't even sure that Lucius knew his grandson had been missing.

Rose experienced a momentary stab of worry when the door was closed and she could no longer hear their voices, but she had her own things to worry about. She shouldn't be wasting time thinking about all the horrible things that could happen to Scorpius when she was in just as much – if not more – danger than he was.

She continued on, absently shaking her foot when a ball of cobweb stuck to the fur there. The room with the orb was just as she remembered it, just significantly larger because she was the size of a cat. Everything seemed big to her when she was a cat. She'd once run into a dog and her poor heart had nearly burst from the shock. They weren't supposed to be that _tall_.

Glancing around just to be positive there was no one watching, Rose changed back into herself and approached the table. Now that she was marked, the orb wasn't calling to her anymore; it just seemed like a harmless, pearly sphere... that exuded an aura of death. She assumed that if it was going to lure her back like it had with Scorpius, then it would happen later like it had for him.

Rose had put a lot of thought into how to get the thing out of Lucius' compound, and she'd decided that just slipping it in her pocket might not work. She didn't want to get caught on the street with such a dangerous and _illegal_ object just floating around in her pocket. There was also a chance that it could fall out of her pocket and some other innocent would become a victim. She didn't want that on her conscience.

Praying it was going to work, Rose shrunk the orb to about a centimetre in diameter, the size of a bead. With its light colour and almost metallic sheen, the orb could pass for a pearl. She allowed a small, victorious grin before she used a sticking charm to attach it to a bracelet she'd worn just for the occasion. To anyone who was looking at it, it would appear as if she just had a pearl charm on her bracelet. It was kind of fashionable, really – if it wasn't for the evil thing.

Stolen object successfully in place, Rose turned back into a cat and slunk over to the door behind which Scorpius was talking to his grandfather. There must have been some sort of silencing charm on the door, because she couldn't hear a sound from behind it, even with her sensitive ear pressed against the wood.

Rose had expected him to take a few minutes, make idle conversation, and then they'd escape together, but whatever they were discussing, it was taking much longer than she had planned. She was left with a choice: make sure the orb got out of there safely and escape with it, or she could wait for Scorpius and make sure _he _got out of there safely.

Had she been in possession of more Slytherin traits, she probably would have left him, but there was entirely too much reckless bravery inside her to just leave someone behind like that. Sitting down in the cold dirt, Rose stuck out her back leg and started licking it. If anyone saw her, they'd just think a stray cat had snuck in, not that there was an eerily still cat waiting beside a door, for all appearances waiting for something, and assume there was some kind of magic afoot.

When the door suddenly opened and Scorpius' feet rushed by, Rose started so badly she nearly toppled over. She had been a little too involved in licking her knee and had almost forgotten what she was supposed to be doing.

Rose meowed as loud as she could to get his attention. One thing she hated about being a cat was that she couldn't just _say _what she was thinking. She had to hope people knew her well enough to correctly interpret her intentions.

He barely even stopped his flight, just grabbed her and kept running, manhandling her in exactly the same way he'd done before that had caused her to yell at him. This time however, she didn't mind as much. Chances were that whatever had him fleeing so quickly meant that he had a good reason for just grabbing her. In fact, it was nice of him to stop long enough to scoop her up when all of his instincts were probably screaming at him to keep running.

"Did you get it?" he asked quietly between breaths as his lungs tried to keep up with his panicked dash.

Rose nodded, the gesture probably looking strange coming from a cat, but it was the only way to convey her message.

"Keep it somewhere safe until we can figure it out," he muttered. Rose nodded again, but he didn't glance down at her to make sure she was going to comply with his wishes. He just assumed that she would do what he'd ordered.

When Scorpius Apparated the both of them back to the Manor, Rose stayed as a cat which she trotted at his heels. She didn't want to risk someone seeing her change back.

Scorpius opened his bedroom door and shifted to the side so she could enter before him. They both froze when they saw that Hugo was waiting for them, perched on the bed and looking put out. "You could have included me," he complained petulantly as Rose turned back into herself.

"Hugo, get out of here," Rose ordered.

Immediately, his indignant protests started, but Rose cut him off. "I'm not risking you getting marked by this thing as well. I don't want you even in the same room as it, so get _out_."

Knowing he wasn't going to get anywhere with his adamant sister, Hugo turned to Scorpius, who shook his head. "I agree with Rose, you'd best stay away until we can figure this out."

"OUT!" Rose shouted in her no nonsense voice when Hugo still hadn't moved. His expression darkened, but he obeyed.

"I could _help_," he said as he left. Rose waved her wand at the door once he was gone, spelling it against eavesdropping and visitors. No one would be able to getting unless they broke the spells, and Rose doubted Hugo had the skill.

Room secured, Rose turned to Scorpius.

"Why do you look so... worried?" she asked. Worried wasn't the right word, but she wasn't willing to stand there and fish around in her large vocabulary for the word she wanted. They had a Dark artefact to destroy.

"I think I just killed my grandfather," Scorpius said. His eyes were too wide and there was a slight tremor in his hands, but other than that he seemed fine. Rose doubted they'd engaged in a duel if Scorpius was completely unscathed. While she didn't think Lucius had much value as a person, he did know some nasty curses and he was no slouch with a wand. Had they fought, he could have given Scorpius a run for his money. There would have been at least a little blood.

"How?" she asked.

"I did what you said and told him a story that would completely distract him," Scorpius said morosely, "Then he clutched his chest like he was in pain and fell over. I checked his pulse, and he didn't have one."

Rose's eyes widened. She was no Healer, but that sounded like he'd had a heart attack. She supposed Lucius was old for a Muggle, but not for a Wizard. It would have had to be one hell of a story to make his heart stop.

"What'd you tell him to give him a heart attack?"

Scorpius looked slightly uncomfortable. "You don't want to know."

After so many years living with her, he should know better than to give her half the story and leave out one of the most important details. Her curiosity and drive to know things was nearly as strong as her mum's, Rose just didn't do productive things with it like Hermione did.

Determinedly, Rose crossed her arms and stared him down.

Scorpius _did _know her well, which meant he was familiar with her tricks and not in the least intimidated by her stare. He raised a pale eyebrow in challenge. "I told you that you don't want to know, and I meat it. In case I mispronounced one of the words, let me clarify: I'm _not telling you_."

She narrowed her eyes. "I'll get it out of you eventually."

"I don't doubt that," he said with a frown Rose suspected was directed at himself more than her. "But you're not going to get it out of me tonight."

* * *

><p>In honour of Hugo's return and – though no one said it – Rose and Scorpius's imminent demise, Hermione pulled out all the stops when preparing dinner that night. She wanted to spoil the children as much as possible in case they weren't there to spoil much longer. If Rose wasn't going to let her help with anything else, at least Hermione could do this.<p>

Hugo was still pouting about being thrown out of Rose's room, so he refused to allow his mum to engage him in conversation. Instead he sat there frowning at everyone and making the silence at the table even more obvious. Scorpius was lost in his own thoughts and Rose didn't feel much like talking.

With no better options available, she still had the orb on her bracelet. Leaving it anywhere was risking someone – probably a snooping Hugo – finding it and dooming themselves as well. She'd cast a shield charm over it in hopes of suppressing the Dark aura that surrounded it, but it only seemed to somewhat dampen the effect. The thing was still making her miserable, and she was willing to bet that, to a lesser extent, it was doing the same thing to everyone else.

It was a wonder that no one else had noticed the horrible feelings that exuded from her new accessory. Rose could only assume they thought it was just a sombre diner considering the reasons for it. She wasn't really being fair by forcing them to be around her while she wore the thing, but Rose knew that Hermione would have insisted that she at least make an appearance at dinner.

When Hermione and Draco started chatting about the weather to fill the uncomfortable silence that was reigning over the dinner table, Rose stood up, the squeak her chair made on the floor sounding unnaturally loud. She had stayed long enough that Hermione shouldn't complain, and sitting there was starting to become unbearable. Rose had to leave.

"I need to be excused," she announced, fleeing the room.

Suffocating panic had been lurking around the edges of her mind ever since her mum had confirmed that the mark on her palm was going to kill her. Close contact with the orb was only making it worse.

She just needed some time alone. Preferably away from the influence of the artefact on her wrist, but being away from it would mean she'd have to entrust it to someone else, and she didn't want to risk that. Scorpius was under the same pressure as her and didn't need any more, and anyone else risked being bitten and marked themselves.

Rose retreated to her room but didn't stop at the bed, even though she was pretty tired. Roughly shoving the window open, she climbed out onto the roof and perched there, wrapping her arms around her legs and sighing.

Escaping the walls of the Manor didn't really help the suffocating feelings of upset. The cool, fresh air made her feel a tiny, minuscule amount better. It calmed her enough to keep the budding panic attack at bay. Brooding outside her bedroom window seemed to work better for Scorpius, that wild look in his eyes usually calmed slightly after spending some time out there.

Maybe it was the cigarettes.

"Mum's worried about you," Hugo said, awkwardly stumbling through the window and sitting beside her. He nudged her shoulder when she remained silent.

"She has good reason to be," Rose answered. For once, she didn't want to think about what everyone else was feeling while she was all torn to bits inside. She just couldn't deal with going back to dinner and pretending everything was all right so her mum would feel better.

A sniffle made her glance over at Hugo, surprised. He was trying to hide that his eyes were overly bright with tears.

"Hey," Rose said, trying for comforting, "There's no funeral on the calendar yet. As much of an arse as he is, dad's a fighter and so is mum. If I've learned anything from their stories, it's to never give up, even when all hope seems lost."

An exaggerated gagging noise made her turn and glare at Scorpius, who was standing on the other side of the window.

"Sorry, I just threw up a little in my mouth just then," he said, casually leaning against the windowsill.

"There's nothing wrong with having hope," Rose snapped.

"There is something wrong with basing that hope on the stories and achievements of your parents."

Rose sighed; of course he wouldn't want to base his hope on his parents, his father had been a Death Eater - not that Draco hadn't fully redeemed himself since the war. Scorpius was still a little touchy about the whole Death Eater thing – as was the rest of the world. No one ever let him forget that for centuries his family had been associated with the Dark side. Secretly – and not so secretly sometimes – people still expected the Malfoys to sow chaos and bring about general discord whenever the chance arose.

"We're not our parents," Rose said, "But that doesn't mean we can't learn from them. I don't plan on dying, which means you don't either."

Scorpius scowled at her, probably upset that she'd understood exactly where his comments had come from.

"I never said I was planning on dying," he grumbled.

"No, just that she shouldn't have her heart set on living because she'd more than likely be disappointed," Hugo said.

The scowl on the blond's face morphed into a glare directed at Hugo. "Shouldn't you be avoiding your sister for fear of getting bitten by the snake and share our fate?"

Hugo ignored the question. "Can I see it?"

"Out," Rose ordered in a monotone. If he was asking to see it, it was possible that the thing was drawing him in and he was reacting to it subconsciously. She shot a nasty look at Scorpius for even bringing it up.

Scorpius stepped aside, clearing the window for Hugo to exit. The younger redhead didn't even bother protesting, he knew he was outnumbered by two people much more stubborn than he was.

Grumbling, he clambered back through the window and into Rose's room, and then into the corridor and out of sight.

As soon as her real brother was gone, her stepbrother joined her on the roof.

"Can I have a cigarette?" Rose asked, surprising Scorpius. She was usually telling him that he needed to stop with the "filthy habit", and now she was asking for one.

At his questioning look, she elaborated. "It's not like I'm going to have to worry about ruining my lungs for long if we can't destroy the bloody snake thing."

"No," Scorpius said, refusing her request even as he removed a cigarette for himself.

He let her stew for a bit while he lit the thing and then took a drag with exaggerated slowness. By the time he exhaled a puff of smoke, she was looking ready to strangle him but still hadn't said anything, waiting for his answer.

"We're not going to discuss how to save ourselves while you smoke because you don't believe we're going to be successful. That would be sabotaging the entire endeavour before it really even started."

Indignant, she was about to object when he held up a hand to stop her, smirking when her teeth angrily clacked together as her mouth snapped shut again.

"Where is the vile thing? I can feel the miserable aura coming from somewhere close, and as I could feel it just as strongly at dinner, I assume you have it somewhere on your person."

She held up her hand and jingled the bracelet. "It's my new, morbid fashion accessory."

He stared at the little pearl, even after Rose had lowered her arm. She examined the thing as well. It looked completely harmless hanging there on her bracelet – pretty even. If it wasn't so evil and literally killing her, she would never have guessed what it was capable of.

Maybe she'd get herself a few real pearls for her bracelet once this whole thing was over – provided she survived, of course. They'd remind her that even the most harmless looking thing could be dangerous, especially in the magical world.

The cigarette made a near silent hiss as he ground it out on the slate roof tiles.

"Let's go destroy this thing then," he said, climbing through the window and offering her his hand. "I have a feeling it might take us a few tries, so we should start as soon as possible."

Rose let him pull her through the window and back into the Manor. The walls were slightly less suffocating when she knew she wasn't facing her death alone.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**A/N:Oooo there's a new method of uploading chapters! I'm not sure I'll ever use it, but it's nice to have the option. Some of these changes tot he site are freaking me out though, the titles in the alert emails keep changing...  
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**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! You guys are the best! Also thanks to Adele for betaing. This chapter has quite a bit of humour and even some Rose/Scorpius action, so I hope you guys like it!**

**~Frosty**

Frustrated, Rose tried a blasting spell one more time, really only doing damage to the floor. There was already a crater in the stone all around the orb, but the glossy surface of the dark object remained unmarred by any spell she could think of.

Scorpius rolled his eyes at the childish way she was lashing out. He'd given up blasting spells several minutes ago and was just standing back waiting until she'd released some of her anger and frustration. Better that she take it out on the orb, which deserved it, than him, who certainly didn't.

They were in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor, having decided that underground was the best place to try and destroy the thing. Neither of them wanted to risk putting anyone else in danger, so the unused dungeons had seemed like the best idea. They were least likely to be discovered there, and the stone walls took the damage from any stray spells without buckling.

The strongest silencing spell either of them knew was keeping the sounds of their experiments from reaching anyone else in the house. There was less they could do about the vibrations from the explosions, but a few shoddy muffling spells seemed to be enough to keep anyone from storming into the dungeons ready for an attack.

"It's not _working_," Rose growled, launching another spell at the orb, which had been returned to its former size. Just like all the others, the spell bounced off of the pearlescent surface and collided with the wall where it exploded making chips of stone rain down on the floor.

"I think we established that a while ago," Scorpius said dryly. "Your mum did say it's near impossible to destroy the thing, blasting spells would be too simple."

He stepped forward, carefully aimed his wand, and cast the curse the both of them had been avoiding. "_Avada Kedavra_," he said, his voice unwavering and sure.

Horrified, Rose took a step away from him but didn't move her eyes from the orb as the green jet came into contact with it. The curse was absorbed instead of repelled, but nothing else happened. The evil aura was still there, so she was relatively certain that the snake hadn't been damaged by the blast.

It terrified her that she was starting to adjust to having that all-consuming depression looming over everything she did. She knew people had an amazing ability to adapt, but she would have thought something so terrible would make a larger impact.

Scorpius shrugged at her accusing look for casting an Unforgivable. "It was worth a try."

"What if that had ricocheted and hit one of us?" she demanded.

"Then we'd be just as dead then we'd be if one of the blasting curses had hit us but our deaths would have been painless."

Sighing, Rose sunk to the floor. There was no point in arguing with him, neither of them had been hit by any of the curses, so he would just dismiss her concerns as overreacting. She glared at the seemingly innocent orb in the middle of the floor. It was amazing that so much evil could fit in such a small package. A huge yawn made her mouth stretch so hugely that her jaw cracked.

"I think we're going to have to give up for the night. It's almost three in the morning and I'm barely conscious at this point. You're certainly not any better off," Scorpius said.

Spending the night with that thing in the bed with her wasn't at the top of her list of priorities, but Rose knew she didn't have any other options. She refused to be responsible for the death of someone close to her because she was too skittish to try and sleep beside a Dark Object. Besides, with the thing constantly draining her life force, she was probably exhausted enough to sleep with a live, angry tiger in her bed, one silent and motionless Dark Object shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

"Let's go then," she said with another yawn.

Thoughtlessly, she cast a shrinking charm on the orb so she could reattach it on her bracelet.

They both stared when the spell actually _worked_. It made sense, since the shrinking spell had worked the first time, but after spending so long sending ineffective spells at the thing, it was a surprise that one had finally been successful.

"How was I able to shrink it if spells don't work on it?" she demanded.

Her query had been spoken out of frustration, not actual expectation of an answer, but Scorpius answered anyway.

"You weren't trying to destroy it with the shrinking charm," he said with a shrug. It was the best answer he could give her, and it was going to have to do because she couldn't think of anything better.

She reattached the evil thing to her bracelet and followed Scorpius out of the room.

* * *

><p>Rose woke to the feeling of something tickling her. After taking a second to gain her bearings, she realized that someone was leaning over her, feathering kisses against her bare shoulder.<p>

Satisfied once she knew what the tickling sensation was, Rose smiled sleepily and let herself snuggle into the softness of her bed once more. For a second there, she'd been worried it was a bug or something crawling on her. Now that she was aware what it was that was making the tickling, she was content to just let him shower her with attention.

Her eyes snapped open again; no one was supposed to be in her bed.

"Scorpius, what are you _doing_?" she demanded, mustering as much anger as she could when so groggy. It wasn't much.

She should be furious with him for sneaking into her bed in the middle of the night and invading her personal space, but that would be a tad hypocritical of her.

"Kissing you," he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world that he should be looming over her in the middle of the night and kissing her.

Rose rolled her eyes. "I know _that_. What I want to know is why you're doing it to_ me. In my bed._"

Instead of answering, he went right back to his ministrations on her shoulder.

"_Scorpius!_" she snapped.

"Just this once, can we not be drunk?" he asked in a hot whisper between kisses. Steadily, he moved from her shoulder to her neck.

Groaning, she buried her head under her pillow. "Scorpius, I have a Dark object literally sucking away my life and energy. I'm completely exhausted. How do you have any spare energy for sex?"

Rose may have exaggerated her exhaustion slightly. While she _was_ extremely tired, her hesitance was more because she wasn't sure she wanted to shag Scorpius without copious libations before the act. To be honest, she was feeling these strange... stirrings towards the git and she wanted to discourage them in any way possible. Sleeping with him would probably only fan the embers into flames and that wasn't a good idea. Nothing more could ever come from a relationship with him, and fooling herself into thinking otherwise would only lead to heartbreak.

While he was insufferable most of the time, Rose had never had a problem with him in bed, whether sleeping or otherwise. That was a major part of the problem.

"Rose, I need-" he broke off with a frustrated sound. "I don't even know. Just... please?"

Rose gently pushed him off of her, rolled over, and looked in his eyes. That bloody vulnerability was back, tugging at her conscience and telling her that she was being selfish for denying him something that could comfort him – more than likely her as well - just to save herself from feelings she didn't know how to handle.

If they weren't able to destroy the object that was killing the both of them, would it really matter that she had inappropriate feelings about her stepbrother?

Taking her quiet internal battle as a no, Scorpius moved to get off of her bed.

Screw over-thinking things. She needed this too.

"Wait," said Rose.

Knowing this was going to be one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time but she regretted in the morning and still not caring, Rose tugged on his hand until he was back over top of her. He allowed her to pull him without complaint.

"Just this once," she murmured against his lips.

* * *

><p>"Bloody hell!" someone shouted, jolting Rose out of an exhausted sleep. Every time she woke up, it seemed like she was more tired than she'd been when she fell asleep.<p>

She heard some rushed whispers and a scuffle in the doorway, but she wasn't terribly concerned about it. Anyone who wished her harm wouldn't be able to get inside the Manor.

Rolling over, she snuggled against the warm body beside her. The warm, _naked_ body.

Shite.

In a huge tumble of images, the previous night came rushing back to her. Merlin, she was an idiot, and she couldn't even blame alcohol this time!

"You can't keep me from seeing my sister!" Hugo yelled in the hallway.

There was some low murmuring as someone obviously tried to keep him out of the room, but the attempt was obviously unsuccessful. A moment later, Hugo burst into the room. When he saw Rose and Scorpius on the bed, he paled, turning a strange green-tinged white. Making a strangled sound, he fled the room.

"Why didn't you _warn_ me," Rose heard him hiss out in the hallway.

Recognising the voice that had first shouted, Rose wasn't concerned about it being a parent that Hugo was fighting with.

She had a feeling Hugo wasn't going to just go away and let her sleep some more. Having to get out of bed was looking more and more likely by the second. She closed her eyes once more, wanting to squeeze every second of rest she could out of the day. Somehow, she doubted it was going to be a very restful day, and she wasn't near ready to face it.

"Why do I have a feeling that today's going to be a long day?" Scorpius asked, blinking down at Rose where her head was resting on his chest.

"I told you this was a bad idea last night," she whispered.

"Maybe, but do you regret it?"

She didn't take a moment to consider it. "No."

She did, however, regret not magically locking and silencing the door. If she had, they would both still be asleep and her annoying relatives would be stuck on the other side.

"Well then," Scorpius said, looking pleased, "Let's put some clothes on and speak to your brother before he brings our parents in here and we have even more explaining to do."

Groaning a wordless complaint that she had to leave the warmth and comfort of her bed, Rose started gathering her clothes from the night before, Scorpius following her lead.

"We're decent," she called to the two in the hallway once they'd donned the gathered articles of clothing. There were shadows under the door and muffled voices that told her they were still out there, arguing.

"Didn't you two swear the last time I had to see that that it would never happen again?" Albus asked irritably. He walked in with a hand over his eyes, just in case he and Rose didn't share the same definition of "decent".

Hugo, on the other hand, had stepped into the room and pressed himself to the wall, refusing to take another step closer to the bed once he knew what had happened there. "_Again_? It's happened _before_?"

Hearing no screams about seared retinas and brain bleaching from Hugo, Albus slowly opened two of his fingers and peeked through the crack. He dropped his hand completely when he saw that both Rose and Scorpius were fully clothed.

"I really don't think this is an issue what with our deaths looming over our heads right now," Rose said.

The blond muttered something about needing a smoke and slipped out the window, leaving it open so he could still listen in on the conversation without actually having to be a part of it.

"I'm not dying and I'm pretty sure that image is burned in my retinas. _Of course it's an issue_," Hugo replied.

Scorpius was starting to get frustrated with his stepbrother. "I could Obliviate you," he called through the window, "That way you'd never have to remember."

"But then I risk _walking in on that again_," Hugo yelled.

Rubbing her temples, Rose sighed. "Scorpius and I were naked, big deal. Now can we move past that and get to more important matters?"

Everyone ignored Hugo as he continued to gripe in the corner.

Rose turned to Albus. "Mum called you over, didn't she?"

Albus shrugged. "She likes to think that we're a lot like our parents were in their school days. She knows you're not going to confide in her, but I'm pretty sure she's hoping I can help get you out of whatever mess you're all tangled in. Those pregnancy hormones are really getting to her brain."

"Maybe, but we could probably use some help," she said. "We have to figure out how to destroy something that's near indestructible if we want to live."

"It's pretty obvious, isn't it?" Scorpius drawled, his voice carrying in through the open window along with the smell of smoke and a cool breeze.

"Enlighten us then." Rose snapped, not in the mood to play games.

"What else is virtually indestructible?"

"Lots of things!" Hugo said, frustrated.

Presented with a puzzle, Rose wracked her brain, trying to come to whatever conclusion Scorpius had already reached. She didn't like that he knew something she didn't. In fact, she hated it. He liked to lord it over her and act condescending if she was even a few seconds behind him.

"Nothing's indestructible!" Albus said, frustrated. "The only thing that comes close is a Horcrux, but they're-" He broke off when Scorpius raised his eyebrows pointedly. The blond was twisted at a strange angle to peek through the window at them but still blow the smoke outside.

"I said _virtually_ indestructible," Scorpius reminded him.

Rose frowned. "Are you saying we should try and destroy this thing the same way we would a Horcrux?"

"We're going to need a Basilisk fang," Hugo muttered, his eyes distant as he was lost in thought. Rose was glad he had something else to occupy his mind, his whining was starting to get on her nerves.

"They're rare, but it's not impossible to buy them. Our problem is that it would take weeks to find one," Scorpius mused.

_And we probably don't have weeks_, Rose finished in her head.

"What about the one still in the Chamber of Secrets?" Hugo asked.

When they had still been together, Hermione had frequently told of Ron's stroke of genius during the Final Battle, remembering that the Basilisk body was still there. It had stood out so much because strokes of genius with him were kind of few and far between. The story had stopped once Ron left, but Rose and Hugo still remembered all the details. In fact, Hugo used to take pleasure in wrapping his tongue around the strange sentence in Parseltongue. He used to constantly repeat it after Ron had recited his line in the story.

"Can you still speak in Parseltongue?" Rose asked her brother.

He thought for a moment, no doubt delving into his memories before saying a few lilting, hissed words that no one in the room understood.

"I think that was right," Hugo said, looking around at everyone else for confirmation, but they were even less able to answer than he was.

"When are you supposed to go back to school?" Scorpius asked, still outside on the roof.

Hugo raised his voice so the blond could hear him. "Not until tomorrow."

"Here's what we're going to do," Albus announced, obviously feeling left out. "Hugo's going to go back early and he's going to bring Rose with him. You two will get the fang while Scorpius and I will run interference with the parents."

Scorpius' scoff was loud enough that all of them heard from inside. "Might as well go with them, Potter, you're not going to be much use here. They'll never believe that you and I were willingly spending time together."

"They'd probably also have trouble believing that you two are sleeping together, yet that's the truth," Albus defended.

Rolling her eyes at their pointless bickering, Rose headed for the door. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm hungry."

"I'm not sure if I'll ever have an appetite again after this morning," Hugo muttered. Complaining all the way, he followed her down.

Surprisingly, there was no breakfast laid out on the table like Hermione usually had prepared for them when they came downstairs. The kitchen was empty. All four of them shared a look, wondering where Hermione and Draco could be.

Followed by her brother, stepbrother and cousin, Rose went to check Draco's office to see if he was there. He would probably know where her mum was. Inside, Draco was leaning against his desk, pale and distraught while Hermione rubbed his back watching him with large, sad eyes.

"What's wrong?" Rose whispered, fearing the worst. They were acting like someone _died_.

Hermione shook her head slightly and beckoned Scorpius, who was peeking into the room over Albus' shoulder, to come closer. Reluctantly he obeyed, coming to stand uncomfortably beside his stepmother, towering over her with his greater height.

Rose knew it was something really bad when Hermione took Scorpius' hand in a comforting grip. Normally, she wouldn't risk the fallout that was sure to result from touching him, but her need to comfort outweighed her common sense in this situation.

Scorpius looked even more worried, but for once didn't object to the motherly gesture.

"Scorpius," Hermione started, looking up at him with sympathy, "Your father went to have a talk with your grandfather this morning to see what Lucius knew about that mark on your hand." Hermione gnawed her lip slightly, not wanting to share her horrible information. She squeezed his hand and steeled herself before continuing. "Draco found Lucius dead at his desk. No one knows what happened to him."


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

**A/N: Another chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to Adele for betaing! I won't bore you guys with further ramblings (and by that I mean I'm in a hurry to go jump in the pool but thought I should post this first).**

**Here's the chapter!**

**~Frosty**

Hermione and Draco both missed the panicked look Scorpius shot towards Rose, Albus and Hugo caught it. They made a note to get the full story later, when the prying ears of parents weren't present. If the story was juicy enough, it just might make up for the earlier trauma caused to Albus and especially Hugo when they burst in on Rose and Scorpius naked. _Might _make up for it.

"No one knows what happened to him?" Scorpius echoed in a surprisingly steady voice considering the panic he'd shown only second before.

Draco looked up then, his eyes sad but none of his emotions showing in his expression. "Did you have that mark on your hand when I came to your room and you told me you needed to quit?" he asked, ignoring his son's question.

Eyebrows raised in surprise, Rose examined Draco's face closely. He must have known what was wrong with his son as soon as Hermione did, Rose couldn't see her mum keeping something like that from her husband. Yet it was only now that he was bringing it up? Rose could only assume that it had been eating away at him for a while now and was starting to break free. She could only assume that Draco had been in some sort of denial about his son's approaching death. This was understandable since she'd been in the same boat since she'd heard about her own death.

Scorpius shook his head. "No, I didn't."

"So this all could have been avoided if I had just listened to you back then," the older man muttered, finally letting an expression leak onto his face. Unfortunately, it was a tormented one.

"This isn't your fault," Hermione said firmly. She took Draco's arm and led him back over to his desk. "I've been doing all kinds of research. We're not going to let Scorpius and Rose die." The words sounded worn as they came out of her mouth, as if she'd used them so many times in the last few days that they were starting to lose their meaning. It hurt Rose to know her family was in such pain, but she didn't want to get their hopes up prematurely with her most recent theory about the orb.

Not wanting to interrupt what was obviously a private moment between her mum and stepdad, Rose edged out of the room, pushing Hugo and Albus behind her. She led them back to the kitchen and fished around in the pantry for something that she could eat without having to cook. Things didn't usually go well when she tried to cook.

Scorpius rushed in a moment later. "You left me alone with them," he hissed, scolding all three of them but his eyes were only on Rose.

She shrugged. "You were too far away to grab so I could drag you out, and you didn't notice us leaving. What was I supposed to do? You found us eventually, so no harm done."

The scowl stayed in place until she found some cereal and handed him a bowl. Apparently his stomach was more important than the small grudge he'd been holding.

He sat at the table and settled in to eat at the table and Rose sat beside him with her own bowl. Having already eaten, Hugo and Albus took two chairs on the opposite side of the table without food.

"Do you still have the Invisibility Cloak?" Rose asked Albus as she picked the dried blueberries out of her cereal and put them in Scorpius' bowl when he wasn't looking. Something about those spongy little spheres disturbed her greatly. Sometimes the blue skin flaked off and just left the white inside, and every so often, one of them would have the strangest taste to it, like it had been past its prime when they'd dehydrated it. She shuddered at the mere thought as she slipped another one into Scorpius' bowl.

"I see you doing that," the blond said exasperatedly. Luckily, he didn't mind the blueberries.

"Yes, I still have it," Albus answered. He was a little in awe and a lot disturbed by the rate his cousin was managing to stuff cereal into her face. It was a wonder she hadn't choked.

Rose finished the last bite of her cereal. "Hugo and I need to go to Hogwarts as soon as possible."

Happy to have something productive to do, Albus jumped from the table, but he paused before he'd gone anywhere.

"Don't think this means I won't get the reason for that shared look out of you two. Something strange happened to Lucius and you two know more than you're saying," he said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at Rose and Scorpius.

Scorpius tightened his jaw and stared straight ahead, refusing to even acknowledge that he'd heard the question, much less had something to do with his death. While it usually frustrated Rose when he clammed up like that, this time she was glad. She really didn't want to have to try and destroy the orb without Scorpius' help, and that would be hard for him to provide if he'd been shipped off to the Ministry for questioning. She adopted the same expression for solidarity.

Pursing his lips in annoyance at their lack of willingness to share, Albus left in a bit of a huff. For a professional Quidditch player, he was certainly quite a drama queen.

Hugo shook his head at his cousin's back. "He's such a gossip. He must get it from Aunt Ginny, because I don't think Uncle Harry was ever so nosey."

Scorpius snorted, having heard more than his share of stories from his father about how annoying Harry Potter had been in school. Apparently the Boy Who Lived had been sure that Draco was up to no good and had tailed him like a dog chasing a stick all throughout school.

Turning his attention back to the pair across the table from him, Hugo leaned forward eagerly. "Now that he's gone, what do you two know?"

"We know nothing, now go pack your trunk so you can tell mum you want to go back early so as not to overburden the family in light of the recent tragedy," Rose ordered.

"But I want to help..."

Rose rolled her eyes. "You can help by getting us into the Chamber of Secrets and then by staying at school so I don't have to worry about you dying as well."

"Not that I'm going to die," she amended when Scorpius raised his eyebrows. "No one's going to die."

* * *

><p>The cereal had long since been abandoned and sat coagulating in front of the three at the table as they all stared off into space, each of them lost in their own thoughts while they waited for the key component to their plans.<p>

Albus came back with the silky fabric of the Invisibility Cloak folded over his arm. "This is just like our parents did when they were in school, it's so exciting!" he exclaimed. Apparently he had recovered from his little snit.

"This isn't an adventure of whatever shit you're expecting," Scorpius snapped. "I'm only doing this because I have to if I want to live. What I'd really like to do is sleep."

"I second that," Rose muttered.

"New rule! Neither of you are allowed to mention beds or sleeping or anything else that may bring to mind what I had to witness this morning." Hugo was looking a little green around the edges at just the memory of that morning.

Rose rolled her eyes. "You'll live. Now let's get going to Hogwarts before mum comes down here to get some food for her and Draco and gets suspicious to see Albus with the Invisibility Cloak."

Draco was suspicious by nature, and Rose knew that finding Harry Potter's son in his kitchen with the Invisibility Cloak would set off all kinds of alarms for the former Slytherin.

She snatched the Invisibility Cloak from her cousin and left the kitchen, expecting to be followed by Hugo. Her hand was on the doorknob of the front door, ready to leave the Manor and start up the path when someone caught up to her, but it wasn't her brother – well, not her real one.

"Give it to me," Scorpius said, his hand firm around her wrist.

Not sure what he was talking about, she just glared to make her impatience known.

"The bracelet," he whispered, not wanting Hugo or Albus to hear what he was saying. They were annoying, but they weren't morons. It wouldn't be difficult to figure out why Scorpius wanted her bracelet if they heard him asking for it. Scorpius wasn't really the pearl type – or the jewellery type, really.

Rose looked like she was going to object, so Scorpius continued, bowling her right over with his harsh whisper. "I know you're determined to martyr yourself over this, but you're not going to take something so horrible into a school full of _children_ just so that you can spare me from having to wear the thing."

She wasn't trying to martyr herself, he had been facing the curse much longer than her and she was a little concerned that giving him the bracelet would only accelerate the process. However, she wasn't going to be able to argue with him right in the entranceway and he looked like he was ready to be as obstinate as he needed to get his way. He had a point about the children anyway; Rose couldn't believe that she'd nearly forgotten how disastrous it could have been to bring the orb into a school of innocent kids.

Before Hugo and Albus got too close to see the transaction, she slipped off of the bracelet and clasped it around Scorpius' wrist. Rose felt a significant reduction in the cold pressure resting on her shoulders the moment the cool weight of the orb was no longer resting against her wrist. She couldn't wait to experience life without the foul thing and its influence anywhere near her. The world would be a _much _better place once it was gone.

Scorpius paled, staring down at her bracelet now adorning his wrist. While the thing had dangled on Rose, it was almost too tight on Scorpius. The delicate chain looked ridiculous on him.

"This is worse than I thought," he whispered, reaching out a hand to rest it on a nearby wall, steadying himself. "I'd forgotten how draining it was to touch the thing."

Quickly, Rose squeezed his hand in an attempt to share some comfort. "Sorry."

"You're an idiot if you think for a minute that I blame you for any of this."

"What are you two whispering about over here?" Hugo asked suspiciously as they finally reached the door.

"We're planning a repeat of last night, but in your bed this time," Scorpius said with an evil smirk. "Have fun at school."

Rose dragged her sick-looking brother from the room before Scorpius had time to mentally scar the poor boy any deeper. Or worse, Hermione or Draco walked into the room and asked uncomfortable questions about Hugo's recent mental scarring.

Rose had always thought that once she was out of school and legally an adult she'd be able to stop having to sneak boys into her room. She'd also thought she would have a good job and wouldn't still be living at home with her mum. It seemed she'd been wrong on more than one account.

The problem with living alone was that she wouldn't have anyone there for her if she had a nightmare and needed company. Rose just wasn't a living alone type of girl.

She continued to drag her brother until they were outside the Manor grounds, where it was safe for her to Apparate the both of them to just outside Hogwarts.

"This is when you put on the Invisibility Cloak," Hugo said unnecessarily.

Rose shot a glare at him for stating the obvious, but the effect was somewhat lessened by the fact that she was invisible. She could only hope that he could _feel _the heat of her glare without seeing it.

It had been over a year since Rose had set foot on Hogwarts grounds. The place hadn't changed much. There was still an aura of magic hanging around the ancient stone walls of the castle. Even the fierce battle that had taken place there before Rose was born hadn't managed to ruin the spirit of the castle. A few new ghosts had popped up, including a dark figure in black robes with greasy hair that liked to loiter around the dungeons, but there were no really noticeable differences. Rose had asked her mum about him once, but she'd dropped the questions when Hermione's eyes had teared up.

There were students all over the grounds, taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather by spending their time outside. This was good for Rose's plan because it meant that there would be significantly less students inside the school for them to have to dodge in the corridors. Nothing was more irritating than trying to walk through a crowd while wearing an Invisibility Cloak. Everyone seemed to bump into her if she wasn't watching carefully, and the chance of someone catching on it and pulling it off of her increased significantly.

It was early enough on the weekend that those students who weren't outside were still in bed, sleeping. This meant that there were less prying eyes lurking around the school. Rose was jealous of those students who didn't have a care in the world besides their marks on the next round of exams and could stay in bed as later as they wanted on weekends.

She felt much lighter now that she wasn't wearing the source of her misery around her wrist, but she was weighed down by the knowledge that it was still draining away her life-force and that Scorpius was wearing it in her stead. If he hadn't insisted, she would have found some way to stop him from having to wear it.

Despite the horrible circumstances, it was great for her to be back at Hogwarts. The magical school had always been like a second home when she'd been in her younger years, and then when things had gone south with her home life, it had become like her _only _home. For a while in her sixth year, Hogwarts had been the only place where she didn't have to constantly remember that her father had left and that her mum was dating a Malfoy of all people.

Eventually, she had become used to thinking of the Manor as home, but Hogwarts would always hold a special place in her heart.

Footsteps echoing off of the stone walls, Rose followed her brother into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Just like when her mum had been in school, students tended to avoid this bathroom because it was uncomfortable to do one's business when there was a sniffling ghost with her head through the stall door, staring while she recited her woes.

In her entire school career, Rose had only used this particular bathroom once, and she'd _never _gone back. She was pretty sure the experience had done her lasting mental damage. Rose had once tried to explain to Myrtle that she might make more friends if she tried to have a conversation with someone who _wasn't _there to use the toilets, or even once they were finished with the toilet, but it had only earned her the animosity of the ghost.

When they were safely inside the bathroom, she locked the door with a complicated locking spell that only the best students would be able to crack. She hoped to be finished before someone on the other side of the door realized that it wasn't just a snogging couple that had commandeered the room and went to get a teacher. Being discovered in the Chamber of Secrets by a Professor would just raise all kinds of uncomfortable questions, especially since Rose wasn't even a student anymore and shouldn't be on the grounds. Rose winced just thinking of Hermione and Draco being called to Hogwarts because she'd been trespassing in the Chamber of Secrets.

"We have to make this quick, I don't want to get caught," Rose said as she pulled off the Invisibility Cloak.

She had considered just entering the school as a cat, but it would raise questions about where Hugo had suddenly acquired a new familiar. People could start making connections if it ever got out that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened and that Hugo's new cat had disappeared on the exact same day.

"Easy for you to say, apparently you have the ability to turn into a cat," Hugo muttered. He leaned over the sink their mum had described to be the one leading to the Chamber, but he didn't speak Parseltongue. Instead, he turned to look at his sister. "Why didn't you tell me you were an Animagus, or that there was something going on between you and Scorpius? I feel like I don't know you anymore."

Rose frowned at him. Now was _not _the time to be having this conversation. They had limited time and important things to do.

"Don't be a drama queen," she admonished. "The Animagus thing was just a project I was doing for Transfiguration. I researched all the theory for it and figured I should be able to do it myself, and the Scorpius thing... there's nothing going on there."

"He's not the best person to choose if you just want to relieve some stress," he muttered. As soon as the words left his mouth, he looked horrified. Rose wasn't sure if it was because of what he'd said or if the sentence itself had brought up unpleasant thoughts of the morning.

She didn't really care either way; it was none of his business. "Just get us into the Chamber before I hex you," she snapped.

He stared into the basin of the sink for a moment before reciting the sentence of Parseltongue that he'd learned from their father.

Rose watched in awe as the bank of sinks opened up and revealed the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. It was amazing to see proof that her mum's stories were true. Not that she'd ever suspected her mum of lying to them, but to see such solid evidence that those amazing things Hermione had told them as bedtime stories for year were actually true was exciting.

"Do we just jump down?" Hugo asked hesitantly. He had never been very good with small, dark spaces and the gaping hole in the floor fit both of those criteria.

"You know the story," she said, pulling out her wand and jumping into the darkness.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

**A/N: Hello readers! Sorry for the delay. But the chapter's here now, so that counts for something, yes?**

**Anyway, a huge thanks to everyone who reviewed and thanks to Adele for betaing!**

**For those of you who don't know, I have a new story. It's called The Case of the Creature Kidnappings. I recommend it (of course I do, I wrote it) *grins*.**

**~Frosty**

Air whooshed past, whipping her hair into a fan of red tendrils trailing behind her. The drop had gradually turned into a slide, easing her fall into something that wouldn't kill her when she landed. Rose closed her eyes and tried not to scream, she didn't want someone coming to investigate the sound.

Behind her, she could hear Hugo sliding against the smooth stone. She hoped he was far enough behind her that she would have time to get out of the way at the bottom before he landed on top of her.

When she shot out of the bottom of the slide, her teeth snapped together with the force of the impact. The only warning she had that Hugo was about to collide with her was a scuff on the stones as he shot out a moment later.

She rolled out of the way just as he landed when she'd been only a second before.

Those founders of Hogwarts really hadn't been all that concerned with the safety of the students. Personally, Rose thought it built character when students had to use their own minds to figure out when things were dangerous or not. The magical people had it right, letting their children make mistakes and learn from them instead of the barmy things the Muggles were doing for their kids, like replacing all the balls with foam alternatives because they were afraid that the students would injure themselves. Although, the Hogwarts founders had taken the character building a little too far; just once, Rose would have liked to go from her dorm to her classes without worrying about getting her foot stuck in a trick stair, or having the staircase move just as she was about to take a step onto it.

"Owww," Hugo groaned, standing up and rubbing his bruised tailbone.

Rose pulled herself to her feet as well, understanding her brother's pain – she was feeling it too. Her landing had been just as ungraceful as his. Rubbing her poor bottom, Rose lit her wand as she faced the dark expanse of the Chamber of Secrets.

It was so creepy in there that she couldn't even appreciate that she was experiencing a part of both Hogwarts' and her parent's history. There was rubble everywhere, she assumed it was from when her parents were young and the ceiling had collapsed. At that thought, her eyes darted to the ceiling, trying to judge the structural stability of the stone, but she couldn't really see anything beyond the sphere of light from her wand.

"Let's get this over with," she said, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves. Logically, she knew the Basilisk somewhere down those tunnels was dead, but her nerves were reacting as if the thing was still alive and prowling in the darkness, just waiting for her to wander into its lair so it could strike. The disadvantage of knowing that the monsters were real was that instead of just letting her imagination get the better of her, Rose _knew _what was out there to get her.

She shivered before forcing herself to start walking, Hugo following close at her heels.

* * *

><p>Scorpius was staring at the map Albus had spread out on the desk. They were in the library, somewhere they knew Hermione wasn't likely to venture while her husband was so distraught and sequestered away in his room. They didn't want to be discovered while watching a magical map that gave away the fact that Rose was trespassing at Hogwarts.<p>

He caught sight of the dot that represented Hugo and the one for Rose, watching as they made their way across the Hogwarts grounds. There didn't appear to be any other dots near his stepsiblings, so it looked like they were getting to the Chamber of Secrets unhindered.

"Worried about them?" Albus asked, startling Scorpius out of the trance he'd entered while staring at the tiny dots on the magical map. The middle Potter elaborated when Scorpius didn't immediately answer, "You look a little pale and haunted."

The blond glanced down at his wrist, where the orb was still resting on the delicate chain Rose had been wearing. If he revealed where the orb was, he was risking curiosity get its hold over Albus and make the Potter boy do something stupid. But if he didn't reveal the orb, he risked Albus thinking he was a fretting mother hen. He was a Malfoy for Merlin's sake.

Rose's parents hadn't been the only ones telling stories; his dad had told him more than enough stories about the shenanigans that the Golden Trio had managed to get themselves into during their school days. It was more than likely that the same characteristics that had made Harry Potter get into all that trouble had been passed on to his son. It was best that Albus didn't know about how close he really was to something so dangerous.

"Imminent demise, the death of my grandfather, trying desperately to destroy something nearly indestructible... Those things don't make for a good week," Scorpius explained, not glancing up from the parchment.

"And on top of it all, you're finally facing those feelings you've been harbouring for Rose since sixth year."

Scorpius started to nod before he realized what Albus had said. Cheeks pinking slightly, he finally looked away from the parchment to glare. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't," Albus said in a placating tone as he turned back to the map. He was pretending not to notice that he'd actually made a Malfoy blush - something that was almost impossible. He was rather proud of himself for being the bigger person even though he desperately wanted to do what he usually did and mock until someone hexed him or the truth came out. Being the bigger person was hard work.

Scorpius ignored the smug look on Albus' face as he watched the dot labelled "Rose" follow just behind her brother's dot. He was more than used to ignoring Potters while they tried to annoy him. James Potter had made it his mission to make Scorpius miserable at the first Weasley gathering Hermione had brought him and his father to way back in sixth year, and it hadn't stopped since. Albus had nothing on his brother when it came to being annoying, but he did have an uncanny ability to see things that most didn't. Scorpius could only hope that he'd know enough to keep those things to himself.

"I'm sorry about your grandfather," Albus said, watching the blond's reaction closely.

Not willing to give the pest what he wanted, Scorpius rolled his eyes but didn't react further. It was none of Albus' business what had really happened with Lucius. It was no one's business but his own, really.

Frowning, Albus tried again. "Why did you look at Rose when you found out that he was dead?"

This time, Scorpius didn't even bother with rolling his eyes. He merely continued to stare at the two little dots with the names of his step siblings while they made their way through the lines that represented Hogwarts castle.

He hoped that Rose would return soon, he wasn't sure if he could restrain himself from hexing her cousin if they were left alone for much longer.

* * *

><p>The small circle of light from her wand wasn't near enough to quell Rose's fears that there was something else with her in the dark besides her brother. They walked in silence, not making any sound but the scuff on their shoes on the stone floor.<p>

Rose was constantly straining her ears for the slithering sound of a snake, but the only thing she could hear from the depths of the cave was dripping water. That explained the moist air and mossy smell that emanated from within the cave.

For the first time in her life, Rose was comforted by the spiders scurrying away from the light of her wand. Normally she'd be shuddering in horror and constantly brushing at her clothes in case some were clinging to the fabric and she'd yet to feel it. Their presence reassured her that the Basilisk lurking somewhere in the darkness was thoroughly dead and there wasn't another one out there somewhere. Spiders flee from Basilisks; this she knew from the stories her mum had told them. The only thing these spiders were fleeing from was her and Hugo.

As a child, Rose had never been particularly afraid of snakes, but she was living proof that the saying "_once bitten, twice shy" _was true. The bite she'd received was one hell of a snakebite. She had a feeling that she wasn't going to become any fonder of the slithering reptiles anytime in the near future.

"Rose!" Hugo shouted, shattering the silence around them.

Heart pounding, she froze, her wand up and ready to defend herself.

"What?" she whispered when danger didn't immediately and obviously present itself. She felt like a bit of an idiot, just standing there at the ready, but her sense of self-preservation wouldn't let her put the wand down until she was sure there was no actual danger.

"You're about to step on bones," Hugo said, pointing.

She raised her wand higher, spreading the light further. Hugo was right; there was a disturbingly large skull only a few steps away from her. She was only a step or two away from tripping over the thing.

Death by falling on Basilisk fangs; that would be a depressing way to go. Rose imagined that the press would have a field day with that story. A war hero's daughter killed by the skeleton of something her uncle had defeated when he was only twelve.

How embarrassing.

She wondered if the venom would still be strong enough to kill her after all the years it had been sitting there decaying. Since the Basilisk was a magical creature, she had to assume that the venom would keep its potency because it was the venom was the part that they were counting on to destroy the orb.

Trying to hide her blush while Hugo snickered at her, Rose crouched down in front of the massive jaws and reached up into its mouth to break off one of the teeth, careful the entire time to avoid nicking her skin with the teeth. The venom may be harmless, or it may not. She didn't want to find out which one by risking dying from it. She'd never hear the end of it if she died because she was too clumsy to avoid killing herself with something long-dead that should have been completely harmless.

"Maybe we should take two, just in case," Hugo said when she handed him the stolen fang.

With a sigh, she did as he said. It was a good, logical suggestion to have a spare just in case something happened with the first one – not that she'd tell so.

"Okay," she said, standing up and accepting the fang from her brother. She carefully placed them both in a bag similar to her mum's beaded one with the undetectable expansion and weightlessness charms on it. She'd been hoping that the similarity would let her share some of the success her mum had experienced against the Dark. Rose _really _needed the extra help.

"Let's get out of here."

Casting a wary glance at the skull of the Basilisk, Rose headed back the way they'd come. She wanted to be out of the creepy space as quickly as possible. There were probably spiders nesting in her hair already, she wanted to be away from the Chamber to remove them before they'd established a society. They were always so much harder to remove then.

Hugo seemed just as eager to escape the musty coldness as his sister.

* * *

><p>When Rose got back to the Manor, Hermione and Draco were still out of sight, doubtlessly hidden away while Hermione tried to comfort her husband for the loss of his father. Rose suspected that though she sympathised with Draco, her mum was glad that the horrible man was gone from the world.<p>

Hugo had stayed back at school, where it was safe. He'd tried to put up a protest, but Rose could tell he was actually glad to be out of danger even as he was upset that he was excluded from the action. It was certainly a weight off of her mind that he was safe at school. No matter what happened with her and Scorpius and the orb, she knew for sure that Hugo would be okay.

She went to Scorpius' room first, but didn't see either her cousin or Scorpius. The Marauder's Map was spread out across the bed and the comforter was ruffled in two different spots, no doubt from where Scorpius and Albus perched to watch her progress.

Strange. Rose knew Albus wouldn't leave without his Invisibility Cloak and map, they were all Harry had of his parents and he wouldn't be happy if his children lost them. This meant that Albus was probably still somewhere in the Manor.

Frowning, she pressed her wand to the paper and recited "Mischief managed" to turn it into a nondescript piece of parchment once more. She shoved both the map and the cloak under one of Scorpius' pillows so no one would find them unless they were looking. That done, she went off in search of her cousin and stepbrother.

The second place she looked for them was her room. While she doubted Albus would snoop around in there, Scorpius had a habit of passing through there frequently. No one was inside, but when she poked her head out the window she found Scorpius crouched on the roof and moodily puffing on a cigarette.

"Where's Albus?" she asked as she climbed out and joined him on the cold tiles.

"I cast a Confundus charm on him and sent him home. I expect it'll wear off soon and he'll be back with his annoying, prying questions and stupid observations," he said with a shrug and a dark look.

Rose sat down and wiggled back until her spine hit the bricks of the wall. "You really have to get better at dealing with people who annoy you. That habit of yours is going to get you in trouble one of these days."

"Not important," he waved a hand dismissively, sprinkling the roof with ashes as the cigarette waved as well. "Did you get the fangs?"

Nodding, she showed him the bag. "How are we going to do this?"

"We should probably go back down to the dungeons in case there's some sort of backlash." He crushed out his cigarette on the roof and stood.

She accepted the hand he reached down towards her. As her fingers clasped around his, they brushed against the silver chain hanging on his wrist.

"Do you want me to take that back again?"

He shook his head. "It's my turn to wear the thing. Besides, we're going to have it destroyed in a matter of minutes, there's really no point in switching wearers for a walk down to the dungeons."

That was a surprisingly optimistic way to look at things, considering Scorpius was a staunch pessimist. He was probably just doing it so that she wouldn't insist he return the bracelet.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, they didn't make it down to the dungeons. Hermione and Draco had emerged from wherever they'd been hiding and were waiting for their children in a sitting room, accompanied by a grim-looking Auror who stood as soon as he caught sight of Scorpius.<p>

"Scorpius Malfoy?" the man asked. He looked immensely uncomfortable under the disapproving glare of Hermione Granger and the intimidating one from her husband. Together, Hermione and Draco had enough stubbornness and fire to go against anything, and the sight tremor in the Auror's hands hinted that they'd tried their hardest to discourage him from whatever he was there for. Rose would have almost felt bad for the man if she wasn't pretty sure he was there to take Scorpius in for questioning.

Not looking in the least confused, Scorpius nodded.

"I have it on good authority that you were the last one to see your grandfather alive. I'm going to have to take you in for questioning."

Horrified, Rose looked to her mum to stop this madness, but Hermione just shook her head slightly. There was nothing they could do. She sidled up next to her daughter and wrapped an arm around her shoulders in comfort as Scorpius' wand was taken from him and magical handcuffs were placed around his wrist.

"Distantly or not, Lucius was still a Ministry employee, which means the Aurors have launched an investigation into his death to make sure there was no foul play involved," Hermione whispered to her daughter. "Since his death was so sudden and in a seemingly healthy man, they suspect Dark magic is involved until they've proven otherwise."

Rose didn't know what Scorpius had said to his grandfather, but she knew it wasn't his fault that the foul man was dead. She didn't for a second believe that Scorpius had used Dark magic to kill his grandfather, the man had died from a heart attack, and as soon as they examined the body the Aurors would discover this. Scorpius wasn't a murderer; how was he supposed to know the king of ice had a weak heart?

Upon seeing her pallor and wide eyes, Scorpius gave Rose a look that was probably supposed to be comforting, but he looked much too worried for it to be even the tiniest bit effective. He was more than familiar with being arrested, but never for such serious charges.

"If you think I'm going to leave my son to be questioned by you buffoons unsupervised, then you're insane," Draco said, speaking for the first time. In the presence of a stranger, he had pushed aside his emotions and brought out his stone facade.

Hermione interrupted when it looked like the Auror was going to object. "I've already written to Harry. He's agreed that, in this instance, it would be permissible for Draco to accompany his son." Sometimes it paid to have friends in high places.

"Y-yes Ms. Granger," the man stammered.

"Malfoy," she corrected.

When all three of them had disappeared into the fireplace, the Auror looking terrified and Draco ready to hex the next person who stepped too close to him, Rose sagged where she stood.

"Why is everything going so wrong?" she asked no one in particular. First the orb, then Lucius' death, now this? Rose had to wonder what Scorpius had done to deserve so many horrible things.

Sighing, Hermione wrapped her arm around her daughter's shoulder. "Sometimes bad things happen to people who don't deserve it. The strong pull through and the weak buckle under the pressure." She squeezed Rose in a one-armed hug. "And you, my dear, are one of the strong – so is Scorpius for that matter."


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

**A/N: Hello readers! Look at me getting the next chapter to you in a timely fashion. I told you I would this time. *grins* And you didn't believe me...**

**Anyway, thanks to all the people who take the time to review, and thanks to Adele for giving up her spare time to beta this story!**

**~Frosty**

Gently, Hermione used the arm she had around Rose's shoulder to steer the girl to a sofa. No matter how old she got, Rose was still her baby and Hermione needed to hold her, as much to reassure herself as she did Rose.

"Scorpius is innocent, the questioning is just a formality," Hermione said after the silence had lasted too long.

Rose nodded absently. Until her mum had spoken, she'd been staring at her arms. Her bare wrist was serving as a reminder that Scorpius was still wearing the Orb. He was going to need to keep his wits about him and he was going to have that _thing _draining him the entire time he face the Ministry. She could only hope they didn't have some kind of detection spells for that sort of thing in place and label him a terrorist. Rose wasn't sure if she'd be able to orchestrate a break-in to Azkaban before the orb killed them both. Anxiety was gnawing at her stomach like a horrible parasite. If she didn't do something to distract her, it was going to consume her entirely.

"Have you found out anything more about the orb?" Rose asked, hoping for some confirmation that the basilisk fang idea was going to work. It would be nice to know going into it that stabbing the orb with the fang wasn't going to cause some sort of backlash that would kill them.

Hermione sighed, not an encouraging sound for Rose. "I've found a personal journal that mentioned it in passing, but nothing really concrete. No one's ever studied the thing. It's one of many terrible creations made by the multitudes of horribly evil magic-users, and, unfortunately, there's not enough information on how to counteract them out there. I'm not going to give up though and neither are you," she added quickly when she realized how depressing her information was.

They were still sitting there on the sofa a while later when Draco and Scorpius returned. Scorpius came out of the fire first, and Rose immediately knew something had gone horribly wrong. There was a wildness in his eyes that didn't bode well for anyone. She was up from the sofa and poised to go to Scorpius, but he reached her first.

"He knows," was all Scorpius had time to whisper before Draco was through the fire as well.

Rose wasn't sure she'd ever seen him so furious that there were spots of colour on his cheeks and his tightly-clenched fists were physically _shaking_ with rage.

"How could you?" Draco hissed as soon as he saw his son. The dark anger in his eyes only worsened when he saw how close Scorpius was standing to Rose.

Sensing that the situation was trembling on the edge of disaster, Hermione jumped from the sofa and went to stand in front of her husband, giving Rose and Scorpius time to put the sofa between them and Draco. It wasn't that Rose was scared of Draco, he preferred scathing words to hitting people, but with the towering rage he had obviously developed, the physical barrier that the sofa provided was a comfort.

"What's happened?" Hermione asked, trying to gauge the situation while keeping her husband from bursting a blood vessel or something of the like.

For the first time since he'd come through the fire, Draco dropped his death glare at his son and looked at his wife. "When you had reservations about marrying me and combining our families, I promised you that nothing bad would happen to them under my roof. That I would treat them as if they were my own children."

"And you have," Hermione interrupted.

"It seems that my son has shagged your daughter on more than one occasion." Hermione darted slightly wide eyes over to the children to check that it was true. Their expression left no doubt that it was the truth. "We all knew that Rose was emotionally scarred from her father's abandonment, but I thought that Scorpius would have had more scruples then to take advantage of her."

Rose didn't speak immediately in Socrpius' defence because she was too shocked to form a coherent sentence. That wasn't what had happened at all!

"I'm sure that's not-" Hermione started.

Draco pretended she hadn't even started speaking. "This was supposed to be a home for your family as much as mine, not a somewhere for Scorpius to find easy prey."

"You're talking as if I raped her," Scorpius snapped. He'd been quiet so far, hoping that his father would run out of steam and calm down enough to see reason. Apparently it wasn't going to happen.

"As far as I'm concerned, you did. You better not be here when I wake up in the morning."

It was so minute that Rose doubted anyone else had noticed, but Scorpius jerked back slightly, not having expected something like that. He had been drunk and in jail numerous times and not once had he been kicked out of his home.

"Draco!" Hermione gasped, horrified. "Take that back."

"Don't bother, Hermione, I'll leave," Scorpius said. He left the room before anyone could say anything else.

Drawing herself up, Rose glared at her stepfather. "If you really think Scorpius took advantage of me, then you don't know the first thing about your son," she said coldly, following Scorpius out of the room.

She found him waiting for her on the stairs leading to the dungeon. "Are we going to talk about what just happened?"

"No."

They took the stairs down to the dungeons, the air getting steadily colder as they descended. Lovely, she got to spend some more time underground in yet another dark, creepy place. Just once, she'd like to venture into a nice, well-lit and clean place in search of something to help her destroy the orb.

Actually, scratch that, she was going to destroy the orb now, so she'd never need to go anywhere else on a quest to destroy the thing.

The cell they'd been using when they were throwing spells unsuccessfully at the orb was still pockmarked from the spell damage. This was the cell they chose to use while they finally destroyed the thing. The scattered craters had completely ruined it, so there wasn't much more damage they could do.

Scorpius took off the bracelet and looked at Rose expectantly.

She fished around in her bag, pulling out one of the Basilisk fangs and handing it over to him.

He wouldn't accept the fang.

"Oh no, we're both cursed, so we're going to do this together," Scorpius said, motioning her closer to the object.

Every step she took towards the object seemed to drain more of her energy. It was like it knew they were going to try to destroy it, so it was sucking extra energy from them in an attempt to gain enough power to protect itself from the attack.

Objects with that level of sentience were one of the things Rose found disturbing about the magic world. Had she been a Muggle, she wouldn't have to deal with those sorts of things, but she had a feeling life would be a lot less entertaining.

A glance at Scorpius revealed that he was watching her through heavy-lidded eyes, feeling the same exhaustion she was.

It only took her a few steps to reach him, but it felt like she'd just run a mile by the time she arrived at his side. Her heart was beating quickly and her breath came in quick puffs. Scorpius was breathing heavily as well.

Wordlessly, he wrapped his fingers around the fang and her smaller hand.

Together, they raised it into the air and plunged it into the middle of the orb. It gave some resistance initially but then the fang punctured whatever protective barrier was there and penetrated through the snake hidden inside.

Rose felt a huge drain on her energy at the same time she heard a pained hiss coming from inside the orb. Their fang had hit the mark. After a few more pulls on her life force that left Rose feeling more exhausted than she'd ever felt before, the hiss abruptly cut off and her energy stopped leaving her body.

Scorpius fell onto his knees, pulling Rose with him since he hadn't released his hold on her hand and the fang. He seemed worse off than she was, looking almost grey with exhaustion. Scorpius had been fighting against the snake for longer than she had.

When he fell to the floor on his back, Rose fell half on top of him and didn't have the energy to drag herself upright. She used the last of her energy to feebly throw the fang as far away from them as possible.

"This is uncomfortable, but I'm too exhausted to care," she mumbled.

"Mmmm," Scorpius agreed in a hum, already half asleep.

Rose glanced at the remains of the object that had tormented them before she allowed herself to sleep. She wanted to make sure that there was no way the thing was going to kill them as they rested.

The orb was no longer opalescent; it was clear, showing the snake inside. The fang had pierced right through the head of the snake. Rose had a feeling that the only reason it hadn't died instantly was because it had been using her and Scorpius' energy to keep itself alive. She was glad it had to succumbed to death before it had killed the both of them.

Rose looked at her palm to check that it was really over. Right before her eyes, the dark marks faded until the only thing left was a smooth expanse of unblemished skin. Just to make sure that the curse was completely gone in both of them, she flipped Scorpius' hand and checked it as well. His palm was just as clear as hers was.

"It's really over," she breathed out, relieved.

While she'd remained optimistic through sheer force of will, a part of her had still believed that she was going to die.

Scorpius didn't say anything, he was already snoring lightly.

Satisfied, she snuggled close against his side so she didn't lose all of her warmth to the cold dungeon floor. After she'd wiggled until her head was pillowed on his arm, she allowed her heavy eyelids to finally close.

* * *

><p>Rose woke up when her pillow moved out from under her head. She lifted her head slightly to glare at Scorpius, who was trying to get up without waking her. How he expected to do that when he was both her pillow and source of warmth, she wasn't sure.<p>

"Were you just going to leave me here on the cold stone floor?" she demanded irritably.

"I was going to levitate you to your bed once I was standing," he said, his eyes mocking her for overreacting.

"Oh," Rose mumbled. She accepted the hand he offered her and let him pull her to her feet.

"Should we just leave that there?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at the empty shell that had once held so much evil.

Now that she was rested, she could really feel that the overbearing aura of depression was lifted. She felt almost like herself again – save for a few aches from sleeping on a cold stone floor for however long she'd been asleep.

"I don't see why not, it's completely harmless now," Scorpius answered.

When they passed a window on the way up to their bedrooms, Rose noticed that it was completely dark outside. They must have slept for the rest of the day and a large portion of the night.

Rose wondered if her mum had come looking for her after the revelation Scorpius had thrown at them while under the influence of Veritaserum. She wasn't looking forward to that conversation...

Expecting to go to sleep somewhere more comfortable, Rose followed Scorpius into his room and flopped down on his bed.

When he didn't join her, instead disappearing into his large closet, she rolled over and propped her head up on one of her hands so she could watch him.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Her eyes widened when he came out of the closet with his old school trunk and a handful of assorted clothing.

"I've been told that I better not be here in the morning," he said bitterly.

Rose felt for him, she really did. It was half her fault that he was in this mess, but he was shouldering the brunt of the blame in the eyes of his father. While Rose blamed Scorpius all the time for various things that weren't necessarily his fault, she found that she didn't appreciate it when others did the same.

"Where are you going to go now that you can't live here?" she asked.

Scorpius shrugged. "I've been kicked out, but not cut off. I have more than enough money to go out and rent a flat. Hell, if I wanted to, I could buy a whole _apartment building_ and still have money to spare."

It only took her a second to come to a decision.

"I'm coming with you," she said, her voice leaving no room for him to argue.

"Don't be an idiot." Scorpius had never been one to cave when she used her no argument tone. It was annoying how he was always completely disregarding it.

Prepared for a fight, Rose crossed her arms. "Do you really think I stayed at the Manor after I finished school because of the cheery surroundings?"

"Why did you stay here then?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Who else is going to take you home when you get completely smashed?"

When his face softened slightly and he examined her with surprise along with something else she couldn't identify, she continued.

"Plus, who else would put up with me constantly crawling into bed with them, half the time in tears?"

"Basically, you stayed here for me?"

"Don't flatter yourself," she said with a smile. Maybe it had been a little bit for him, but she'd had selfish motivations as well. It would have been horrible for her to have to sit alone in an apartment, feeling abandoned and having no one there for her. Staying at the Manor was just easier.

He sighed. "Go pack your bags then, I'm leaving tonight."

Smiling, she jumped up from the bed, kissed him on the cheek and rushed to her room to pack her own school trunk and leave a note for her mum – the excess stress of having a missing daughter wouldn't be good for the baby.

* * *

><p>"This place is... lovely," she said with little enthusiasm as she looked around their new apartment. Scorpius had bought a place equipped with all the Muggle fixtures so that she would feel more comfortable there. There was an amazing view of London out of the window. The luxuriant furnishings and decorations were luxurious and reminiscent of the Manor.<p>

"What's wrong with it?" he groaned.

She frowned, trying to put her finger on exactly what was off about the place. "It's too much like something our parents would pick. Not us."

Yes, that's what it was that was bothering her.

"Rose, we wanted a place that was fully furnished where we could move in immediately, and it's the middle of the night," Scorpius said with waning patience. "What did you expect?"

"I'm sure it'll grow on me," she mumbled. He was right; it would be difficult to find someplace as good as their current one. It was amazing that Scorpius had managed to find a housing agent willing to work in the middle of the night. She hadn't heard the conversation that he'd had with the man, but Rose suspected that it had cost him extra to be able to move in immediately, and in the middle of the night, probably _a lot _extra.

She started opening doors, looking for a bedroom, any bedroom. When she found one, she didn't even bother looking around at the room or turning on any lights, she just flopped face down on the bed and closed her eyes.

Scorpius joined her in the room a moment later.

"This isn't going to make my father any happier with me," he grumbled.

"He's already kicked you out, what more can they do?" She wiggled over so there was room for him on the bed as well, a clear invitation. Her smile when she felt the bed sagged under his weight was hidden by the blankets.

"I could get disowned, cut off from the family fortune, forced to live on the streets, selling sexual favours for money-" He broke off when Rose rolled over and covered his mouth with her hand.

"You've already been picked up for prostitution once, do you really want another charge on your record? You'll never find someone willing to marry you if you keep that up."

He rolled away from her when she removed her hand. It seemed he didn't want to play their usual game of poorly disguised flirting.

"Just go to sleep Rose," he said tiredly.

She frowned at his back, wondering what had caused him to get all broody. Was he really worried that he wouldn't be able to find a bride? Draco probably had someone lined up for an arranged marriage if Scorpius didn't find a likely candidate in the next decade or so. She hadn't thought it was a sensitive topic.

Sighing, she followed his example and tried to get some sleep - or at least pretended to. Her energy levels still weren't back to where they would have been had she not had something draining it.

She couldn't sleep. Something was bothering her. Curiosity wouldn't let her rest until she'd sorted out the puzzle that her mind had been turning over for quite a while.

"Scorpius?"

"Mmm?"

"What is it that you told Lucius?"

He sighed and then paused so long that she thought he wasn't going to answer her. "I told him I think I may be in love with my stepsister."

Speechless, she stared at what she could see of him in the darkness. He appeared to be waiting for some sort of reaction.

Those pesky feelings she'd been trying to repress made themselves known with an elated surge that had her stomach dropping and her heart beating faster.

More than anything, she wanted to ask if he had been telling his grandfather the truth, or if he had just been saying something he knew would shock the old man enough to distract him from the fact that he was being robbed.

She let her silence stretch too long as she tried desperately to find some hidden courage that would allow her to ask him to clarify.

"Scorpius," she finally managed to croak. Unfortunately, she couldn't manage anything after that. How was she just supposed to ask him if it had been a lie or the truth that he'd used to kill his grandfather? There was no tactful way to ask that. Sometimes she wished there were books outlining this kind of thing. She could study them and never again find herself at a loss for words.

"Don't bother," he snapped, his voice very nearly a growl. "Just go to sleep."


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

**A/N: Hello readers! I've been trying to take a bit of a break from my computer for the last few days, but I'm here to update.**

**Thanks to all the wonderful people who review and also to Adele for betaing! Only 3 chapters left. It'll be sad to see this story end...**

**~Frosty**

Rose woke up the next morning feeling alert and actually well-rested for the first time in a long while. Her energy had somewhat restored itself overnight. She probably still had some holes in her life-force to replenish, but she was on the mend. It was only a matter of time before she was back to herself again.

While she was feeling more awake, there was a ball of anxiety in her chest that had been wearing away at her even as she slept. She needed to talk to Scorpius.

Unfortunately, Rose had woken up alone. She was going to have to hunt him down if she wanted answers.

Padding into the kitchen, Rose found that someone had stocked the pantry with food. She couldn't imagine Scorpius going to the store and buying things, so he must have paid someone to do it for him.

She made a cup of tea and some toast, sipping and nibbling as she checked all the rooms in her new home for the blond that was weighing so heavily on her mind.

No sign of Scorpius, but she did find an empty bottle of Firewhisky turned over beside the sofa in their sitting room. She frowned as she glanced at the clock; she'd slept in a little, but it was still before noon. He shouldn't be drinking, much less emptying bottles so early.

She had a feeling she was going to have to pay a visit to Patrick at the MLE holding cells later in the day.

Sighing, she went to get dressed. She had a few things she needed to do before that letter asking her to bring bail money down to the Ministry arrived.

* * *

><p>Hermione wrenched open the door to the Manor before Rose could open it for herself. She had Rose in a bone-crushing hug as soon as she saw the younger woman. Rose concentrated on breathing as her mum did her very best to squeeze the air out of her lungs.<p>

"I've been so _worried_!" Hermione exclaimed, squeezing her a little tighter, almost like she was trying to punish her daughter for making her worry so much. "Where were you?" she demanded.

"Mum, you're strangling me," Rose complained. She freed herself from Hermione's hold and took a step away, just in case Hermione decided to try and hug her to death again.

"Where have you _been_?" Hermione stepped back from the door and allowed Rose to come inside. "First I find out you have a Dark object trying to kill you, then you and Scorpius disappear on me! I spent the entire night thinking that Dark object had gotten the better of the both of you and that you were lying dead somewhere in a ditch."

After a brief hesitation on the threshold, Rose did as Hermione wanted and followed her mother into the house. She was pretty sure Draco wasn't waiting to ambush her inside, but she could never really be completely sure with him, he was hard to read.

"I left you a note, mum."

Hermione was unimpressed. "You both disappear in the middle of the night and the only explanation I get says '_left with Scorpius, going to find somewhere to live_'. How is that supposed to make me feel any better?"

"Scorpius was going to leave without me, and I probably wouldn't have seen him again." She looked at her mum with eyes pleading for her to understand. "I can't just... _never _see him again. That's just not an option."

Rose blinked, taking in what she'd just said. She had a feeling that she'd just given herself the answer to that hard question regarding her feelings. Unfortunately, she couldn't delve any deeper into the matter at the moment, since she had a distraught and pregnant mother to reassure.

"How are you feeling?" Hermione asked. Somehow, while Rose had been lost in her thoughts, Hermione had managed to get them situated at the table with tea in front of them before Rose could really notice the change in environment.

Rose smiled slightly and flashed her palm, showing that she wasn't marked anymore. "I'm free of the energy vampire snake... thing."

Had they not been seated, Hermione would have smothered her with another hug. She tried anyway and only succeeded to get an arm around Rose's shoulders, which the redhead quickly shrugged off. More than one such hug in so short a time would probably cause lasting damage to her poor bones.

"And Scorpius?" Hermione asked anxiously. Her eyes were darkened with guilt even though she hadn't done anything to him. "How is he?"

"We're both fine mum," Rose had to stop talking while Hermione burst into noisy tears.

"It's the blasted hormones," Hermione sniffled, though Rose suspected that it was no such thing. She waited patiently while her mum conjured tissues and swiped at the crystalline trails marring her reddened cheeks. When Hermione had herself back under control, only the occasional sniffle and red eyes to show for her earlier tears, Rose continued.

"He's doing as well as he can be after having been kicked out of his home," Rose said. It was an invitation for her mum to explain what in the world had gone on in with Draco after they had left.

Hermione sighed. "I've been talking with Draco about that, but he refuses to listen to reason. He thinks that Scorpius... took advantage of you and he blames himself for it. Draco thinks he's allowed it to happen by marrying me and making his home ours. He doesn't show it much, but Draco loves you like a daughter and he thinks of Hugo as his second son."

"Scorpius didn't do anything like that! I already told Draco that he didn't."

"There's no reasoning with Draco when he lets his anger get control of him like that. I know that Scorpius would never do something as terrible as rape, though I was a little surprised to find that you two had been so... intimate. It's disrespectful to Draco and to me for the both of you to ignore what this would to do the family."

Rose hung her head slightly. She hadn't intended to hurt her mum or Draco when she'd slept with Scorpius. She actually hadn't had many thoughts at all the first time it had happened; she'd been so drunk that the consequences of her actions hadn't even occurred to her. "I think I love him," she said in a small voice.

"You never were one to take the easy path," Hermione said with a sigh. "I suppose you get that from me."

There was a slight difference between Rose and her mother; Hermione had at least tried the easy path first, and, while it had given her two children she adored, it hadn't ended well. Rose wasn't as smart, and she hadn't saved the entire magical world from an evil man intent on destroying it, but she did have spunk in spades. She had briefly tried to take the easier path of being with Michael, but she had veered off that path long before it had time to get as overgrown and miserable as her mum's had.

"What am I going to do, mum?"

At the sadness in her daughter's voice, Hermione stopped her musing comparison between herself and her daughter and really took a look at the girl. Despite having been freed of he curse, Rose still looked like she hadn't slept in a while, her skin was sallow and there were large bags under her eyes, accompanied by slight lines of exhaustion around her mouth. She looked like death warmed over. Yep, definitely love.

"Have you told him?"

Rose shook her head, looking even more miserable. "I can't exactly find him at the moment."

"He's not drinking again, is he? He was doing so well..."

"It's my fault if he did. He sort of told me that he may love me and I didn't say anything. I didn't say _anything, _mum! I was completely shocked. We'd never really put a name to what we had and I always assumed that I was just a-" she stopped and turned a brilliant red when she realized that it was her mother she was talking to.

"Honey, I'm glad that you feel like you can tell me anything, but there are some things a mother just doesn't need to hear."

Rose agreed heartily. "Can we just pretend that I didn't say that last sentence?"

"I think that's best."

"Anyway," Rose said, quick to get their conversation back on track. "He told me that what killed Lucius was him saying that he loved me," Hermione nodded, she'd already heard this part of the story, "And then I took too long to respond, because when I tried to speak, he told me to just go to sleep."

In a move she'd learned from her husband, Hermione raised a brow at the implications of that sentence. Rose seemed unaware of them though, so Hermione let the matter drop. The girl was pretty torn up about the whole thing, that much Hermione knew for sure.

"You're going to have to find him and talk about everything," Hermione said after some thought. She was a little put out with her stepson for making her daughter so miserable, but she wasn't so old that she didn't remember what it was like to be young. Everything was so much more dire then, and Scorpius was probably wasn't much better off than his stepsister. "I don't envy you that, getting a Malfoy man to talk about feelings is one of the most difficult things in the world, and I've robbed Gringotts."

That brought a slight smile to Rose's downturned lips. She remembered the story of how her mum and Draco had admitted their love. If she was remembering correctly, her mum had said she loved him first, and then Draco had hesitated too long. Not willing to be patient, Hermione had thrown her shoe at his head and told him to get his head out of his arse and tell her if he loved her back. Hermione, used to dealing with Ron, hadn't expected Draco to vanish her other shoe, stun her, and then tell her she was insufferable before admitting that he did in fact love her back.

"Just don't throw a shoe at him, or you'll never hear the end of it," Hermione sighed.

Rose's smile increased ever so slightly. Her mum always knew how to make her feel a little less miserable. Besides, of someone as pigheaded as Hermione Granger could fall in love with someone as moody as Draco Malfoy, then surely their children had a chance as well?

* * *

><p>Scorpius didn't show up that night and Rose couldn't find him at any of the usual bars or hangouts. She couldn't believe that he was doing this to her again after how bad off he knew she'd been the last time he'd disappeared. Once she found him, she was going to strangle him.<p>

Desperate, she contacted McGonagall and asked if it would be all right for her to speak to her brother. She doubted that Hugo would be able to guess with any more accuracy than her where Scorpius would be, but she was desperate and it was worth a try.

She took the official route to have a word with her brother, getting permission to be on school grounds and everything. She'd done more than enough sneaking around to last her a lifetime. Her mum's refusal to even go near a tent was starting to make more sense.

McGonagall, glad to hear from one of her favourite students, was more than happy to let her borrow the headmistress' office for a few minutes to talk to her brother. The headmistress had been kind enough to make herself scarce so she could give the siblings some time alone.

The moment she emerged from the Floo, Hugo was squeezing the life out of her. "Mum sent me a letter and said you and Scorpius got rid of those marks and you're not dying anymore."

Smiling affectionately, Rose pried herself out of his grasp. "If you don't stop squeezing me like that, all the work we put into keeping us alive is going to be put to waste."

Hugo looked her over. "What's Scorpius done now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've seen that look before," he said, pointing to her furrowed brow and slight worry wrinkles around her eyes. "I never knew what it was until it hit me just now; that's your worrying about Scorpius face, isn't it?"

She sighed. Scorpius was going to have her prematurely aged if he didn't stop with the drinking. "He was gone this morning and I found an empty bottle of Firewhiskey on the ground. I need to talk to him and he's too busy off getting sloshed."

"What happened last night to make him leave this morning?" Hugo asked. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, his eyes widened to almost comical proportions. "Wait! _Don't tell me_!"

"It's not what you're thinking," Rose sighed. She wasn't going to get into the details of what Scorpius had said. How was she even supposed to explain when she didn't know why he'd fled? Had he thought that she misunderstood and assumed he'd told his grandfather the truth, or was it was the truth and he thought she'd rejected him?

Rose froze. _Would _she reject him?

Trying to perform a purely hypothetical exercise in her head, Rose pretended that Scorpius had told her he loved her and was standing there, waiting for a response while he tried to hide the hope in his eyes. What would her reaction be?

It worried her slightly that she was relatively certain her first reaction would probably be to throw herself at him and snog him silly. It seemed she _may _have developed feelings for him somewhere along the way.

Rose scowled; she _knew _it had been a bad idea to shag him when there was no alcohol involved on either of their parts. She wasn't sure the act itself had changed anything, but the fact that she had agreed without alcohol certainly signified that something significant had altered between them.

Hugo was looking contemplative. "Have you tried that Muggle park in the village by the Manor? He was telling me that his dad went there to do most of his important thinking and he didn't understand the appeal. Maybe he decided to give it a try?"

Glancing out the window, Rose watched as rain pounded against the glass. Scorpius was a little bit like a cat when he wasn't dressed for swimming or showering; he hated getting wet. However, Hugo's guess was as good as hers, and she had exhausted everywhere she could think of on her own.

After once again Apparating to just outside the Manor, Rose started walking to the park. It wasn't a long walk, but after only a few steps, her hair was heavy with water and her clothes were plastered against her skin.

The water sucked any warmth away from her skin, leaving her chilled before she was even halfway there. Rose impatiently cast a warming charm, but it wasn't working as well as she'd hoped. Her warming charms had never been quite as good as her other spell work. She was still cold.

If Scorpius was there, he better have a damn good reason for running away without any warning or explanation.

Rose recognised the figure she could just make out through the heavy sheets of rain separating them. The hair was a few shades darker than normal from the moisture and it was slicked against his head, but she knew the set of his shoulders and tilt of his head.

It was easy to catch him unaware; the sound from the rain completely masked any sound her feet made on the wet grass. Coming around the bench he occupied, she plopped down beside him, making him jump.

As he glared towards the pond in front of them, she raised an amused eyebrow at the cigarette smoking away in his hand. There was no way it was still burning in this weather without the assistance of magic.

"You're going to attract attention from Muggles," she observed, staring at the duck pond he seemed so taken by. It was a completely unremarkable body of water, there weren't even any ducks swimming around or anything. He was staring at it to avoid looking at her.

"In case you haven't noticed, there're not all that many people out for a stroll today. Besides, Muggles only notice what they want to notice. No one will see me smoking and think magic is involved." He didn't look away from the blasted pond even once while he answered.

Rose was relieved to hear that his words were barely slurred, he wasn't very drunk. She'd been worried that he'd be barely conscious when she found him and she needed to talk to him. She needed answers and wouldn't be able to get them if he couldn't speak.

"You disappeared this morning," she observed, hoping to have more luck with a different line of questioning. She figured that maybe if she didn't phrase them as questions, she'd have more luck drawing answers from him.

He just sat there, occasionally taking drags from the cigarette. It was strange to see the smoke curling up from the burning tip, only to be slashed through by water in its way to the ground. Rose watched the strange phenomenon for a short while, hoping Scorpius wasn't going to make her pry an answer from him.

Her hope was in vain.

"I'm not going to go away just because you're not answering my question," she eventually snapped, fed up with being ignored. She didn't like being ignored, and he knew that.

Carelessly, he tossed the cigarette away from him, letting it land in the grass. Considering how wet everything was, there was absolutely no danger of it lighting anything on fire. Rose watched as he stood and then started walking away from her.

"Stop avoiding my question," Rose ordered. "I'm not going anywhere without answers."

She saw his shoulders raise and then lower again as he sighed. The git was acting like _she _was the one being unreasonable one when really she just wanted some answers and he was doing everything in his power to avoid giving them!

"I'm going to dry off before I drown in this bloody rain," he said without much emotion. "Come back to the apartment and we can have it out there." His eyes still wouldn't properly meet hers and it was starting to really frustrate her.

Rose stood from the bench and caught up with him. "Fine, let's go then."


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

**A/N: Hello readers! I'd forgotten that I had this chapter edited and laying around my desktop, so sorry about that. But it's here now and that's what counts, right?**

**Thanks to Adele for betaing and to all the lovely people who took the time to review. We're getting close to the end here, only 2 chapters after this one!**

**~Frosty**

The moment they were back in their apartment, Scorpius left her standing in the living room and went into the bathroom to grab himself a towel. She knew he was just doing it to stall some more, since he could just as easily cast a drying charm.

However, she didn't raise a fuss about his completely transparent stalling techniques. Truth be told, she was a little glad for the delay. She wasn't sure if she was ready for the conversation they were about to have and couldn't really blame Scorpius for wanting to avoid it as well.

She cast a quick drying charm on her clothes and started a fire to warm herself since her warming charm was grossly inadequate. While her spell work was usually exceptional, her warming charms never seemed to work as well as they should. Her mum had always said she wasn't "thinking warm thoughts" while she did it. Personally, Rose thought her mum was a little barmy sometimes, but that was just her opinion.

Scorpius came back into the room, the towel slung around his shoulders entirely for show. His completely dry hair and clothes suggested that he'd cast a drying charm while he'd been in the washroom, making the towel entirely moot.

He seemed to realize that she'd seen right through him because he pulled the towel off and threw it back into the bathroom. Rose frowned slightly at the thought of him just leaving the towel in a lump on the bathroom floor. They didn't have the Manor's House Elves anymore, so someone was going to have to do the laundry. Maybe they could hire a maid? Rose wasn't sure she knew how to work a Muggle washing machine and her cleaning spells were lacking in the same way her warming spells were. It was hard to find practice when wherever she went, there were House Elves just waiting to clean up any mess she made.

"I needed to get out, okay?" Scorpius said defensively. "We've only lived together for a few days and already you're questioning me if I don't announce where I'm going?" he asked lightly, his tone completely at odds with the harsh words. It seemed he had decided to go on the offensive.

Very well then. Rose crossed her arms and glared up at him.

"You finished a bottle of Firewhiskey and disappeared at who knows what hour. I was _worried_ because I _care _about you, you bloody moron!" she yelled. Two could play the offensive game, and she was doing it better.

Scorpius blinked and then blinked again.

Taking advantage of his silence, Rose pressed on. "Did you think I spent the day looking for you because I was miffed that you didn't tell me where you were going? We nearly died this week in case you hadn't noticed. I think that allows me to worry a little more than- mmmph."

Scorpius, tired of listening to her rant, kissed her.

"What was that for?" Rose demanded a second later when he pulled away.

He shrugged. "Seemed like the best way to make you stop talking."

He kissed her again when she tried to yell at him for being a prat. This time, she didn't even bother resisting just so she could yell at him. Kissing was much more pleasant than yelling anyway, and he'd been the one to antagonise her first, she had just wanted to have a conversation.

Just to let him know that he couldn't always stop her arguments with kissing, she nipped his lip, smirking against his mouth when he made a slightly-pained grunt. She was going to count this one as her victory.

When his hands drifted under her shirt and up the bare skin of her back, she pulled away once more. Not because she wasn't completely enjoying his attentions, but because she had some questions that needed answering before the situation degraded way out of her control.

"What are we doing?" Rose demanded.

Scorpius raised an infuriating eyebrow. "I thought it was rather obvious."

"That's not what I mean and you know it," she whacked his chest for emphasis. "What are we _doing_? Mum and Draco know about... whatever we are, and we live together. That kind of implies there's more between us than we acknowledge."

He pondered her words for a moment. "Lots of women share dwellings with men with whom they share no familial connection or fidelity obligations. Some of them even shag these men."

"I don't want to _be _one of those women," Rose said. Her words were almost as much of a surprise to her as they were to him. The surprise didn't, however, make them any less true. She wanted something... more.

They'd been suspended in a limbo of sorts by the fact that they were stepsiblings and nothing could ever come of a real relationship between them. Everything had to be kept from their parents as a shameful secret, never to be spoken of in the light of day.

But now their parents knew.

It would be difficult to disappoint them further than they already had. Scorpius had been kicked out of the house for Merlin's sake! Rose was sure she was next once she explained to Draco that Scorpius hadn't taken advantage of her for anything besides bailing him out when he inevitably got himself arrested.

She stepped away from Scorpius. There was a strange look in his eyes that she didn't waste the energy to place; she wouldn't be able to interpret his expression when he really didn't want her to know what he was thinking. Her mum had once told her that Draco had the infuriating habit of hiding behind a mask sometimes, and Rose had nodded along, thinking that Scorpius had inherited this trait, whether through genetics or by learning it. Maybe she'd learn to do it, just so he would know how it felt to try and read someone who was completely blank-faced.

"You're moving back to the Manor then?" he asked monotonously.

Disappointment immediately crushed the little part of her that had dared to hope. She didn't _want _to move back to the Manor, but she'd taken the risk that she'd have to go there when she spoke up. Sighing, she nodded. If he just wanted to shag her, then she wasn't going to break herself just to stay close to him – and it would break her, she knew. They could live separately; it would just take some terror-filled nights alone to get used to it. What were a few nightmares when compared to a life sucking Dark object? She could do it.

"I guess I am," Rose said sadly.

She was at the door to her bedroom when she stopped. If they were already done, then it wouldn't do any harm for her to ask one more question. It would only really be one more nail in the coffin; inconsequential in the larger scheme of things, but she needed to know.

"When you told Lucius that you loved me, were you telling the truth or just trying to shock him?" she asked, her back to him. Scorpius never failed to somehow make her into a coward.

His answer wasn't the one she'd forced herself to accept as the truth when he asked if she was leaving.

"I was telling the truth."

Shock rooted her to the spot, she didn't want to turn and face him in case she had imagined what he'd said and she'd read the truth on his face. Slowly, suppressing her elation, she turned around to look at him, her face carefully neutral. It wasn't the blank slate Scorpius could don at will, but it was as close as she'd probably ever get.

"What did you say?" she asked in a small voice.

Scorpius looked very apprehensive, but he still spoke. "I said that it was the truth when I told my grandfather I loved you."

She swallowed; that's what she thought he'd said. Rose opened and closed her mouth a few times in shock. She'd been just about to leave and then he had to go and say something like _that_. She was having a hard time keeping up with all of his contradictory actions.

She supposed it was partly her fault that they seemed to be constantly misunderstanding each other; communication issues went both ways.

"Weren't you leaving?" he demanded when she stood staring too long.

_No, not after that._ She couldn't seem to get her mouth to move properly, and her brain was too busy trying to process the new information to force her slack jaw into action. She really needed some sort of software upgrade if she was going to keep getting shocks, one of these days her poor brain was just going to give her an error message and shut down.

Mutely, she shook her head. No, she wasn't leaving, she wasn't going anywhere.

"What?" Scorpius snarled, his hackles up because he'd bared a vulnerable part of himself and she was being an idiot and not responding. "Are you going to chew me out for feeling the wrong thing now? First I can't leave without getting a lecture, and now you think you get to dictate what I feel?" He advanced on her, getting into her personal space as he continued to throw questions at her that were positively dripping with accusation.

"No, you idiot. _I was shocked_," she finally snapped, interrupting the next undoubtedly stupid question he'd been about to ask. Where he got ideas like those, she'd never know. Why ever would she be angry with him for falling in love with her? And never in her life would she try and dictate what another human being should feel.

"And now you're over it," he said, shooing her towards the door, "so kindly leave me to berate myself for my idiocy."

As usual, she didn't obey him. His orders were stupid most of the time anyway. Rose knew better than to take his words for their surface value. The blighter didn't know how to react to strong emotions besides lashing out at everyone around him, usually her.

"What about loving me makes you an idiot? You have better taste than I ever gave you credit for," she said. Her heart wasn't in her words, she was mostly keeping him talking so that he didn't notice she was frantically running over recent events in her head, trying to find out if there were moments where he actually showed that he loved her and trying to work out her own feelings.

Like an unprepared student facing a quiz, Rose was scrambling to sort out everything she knew and come up with an answer. Her mouth was running on autopilot, stalling for time while her brain worked on the problem.

If she was being honest with herself, she had suspected that something deeper might have been between them from the moment he woke her up with kisses and asked if, just once, they could be together without alcohol. If she was _really _being honest with herself, she would admit that she wasn't the type to sleep around, even if she was blackout drunk. There had always been something there; the two of them had just never named it.

Scorpius scowled at her. "You're making _jokes_? For once I say something serious to you and you turn it into a joke."

Worse than angry, he looked hurt. Rose's heart stabbed her in her chest with every beat, reprimanding her for letting her mouth run off by itself just to give her some time. She didn't even need the time, not really. She knew what she should have said the moment he had admitted that he'd been telling the truth when he'd said he loved her.

"Sorry," she said. Slowly, Rose approached him, careful and wary as if he might lash out at her should she advance too quickly. He didn't move away, but his thundercloud of an expression wasn't exactly welcoming.

Rigid and tense, he stood there as she hesitantly wrapped her arms around him, unsure of her welcome. He didn't push her away, but he didn't pull her any closer - or respond at all, really.

"I didn't mean to make a joke, I panicked," she explained.

His expression was a mystery to her because her head was tucked against his shoulder, her face buried against his neck. She was hiding against him. Once again, the snarky blond had turned her into a coward. It was so much easier to speak to him when she didn't have to look into his eyes. Those stupid eyes that could see right through her, yet had somehow missed the one thing that was most important.

She loved him too.

Now she just had to work out how to tell him. The words were stuck in her throat, having lodged themselves there, probably a long time ago.

Scorpius remained still and unresponsive, but she could hear his accelerated heartbeat. It matched the pace of the frantic fluttering of her own.

"You know how I just let my mouth run sometimes," she managed to say around the lump in her throat made up of the words she really wanted to speak.

Firmly, Scorpius took her shoulders and pulled her away from him. "You're forgiven. Now leave."

Indignant, Rose bristled. "I'm trying to have a conversation with you and you keep trying to get me to leave!"

"I don't want to deal with you right now," he snapped. He just wanted to go lick his wounds and forget about how she'd looked terrified when he'd admitted that he loved her. They didn't have the best relationship, but he'd expected something other than _terror_ when he told her. It was humiliating and he wouldn't just stand there and allow the embarrassment to continue.

"You're infuriating, I have no idea why I love you," she snapped right back at him.

When Scorpius didn't respond, she ran back over what she'd said and paled. Merlin, she hadn't meant to tell him like that. It figured that she couldn't get the words out when she wanted to say them, but they snuck out effortlessly when she least expected them. She was just as surprised as Scorpius that she'd said them. Her bloody mouth needed to stop speaking without her brain first approving her words.

"Are you mocking me?" he growled, grabbing her shoulders and digging his fingers into her skin. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes.

Rose knew he didn't take teasing well so it stood to reason that he'd react poorly if she made fun of him for something so serious, but he was _hurting _her. There were probably going to be finger-shaped bruises on her poor shoulders.

She needed to calm him down before he did something that he would regret.

"Scorpius, you're hurting me," she said calmly.

Surprised, he let go immediately, having not meant to actually injure her, just to get her to tell the truth.

"It just slipped out, but that doesn't meant I wasn't telling the truth." She unconsciously cringed away from him and her eyes flickered shut, braced for some more shouting or laughter or something. Merlin, if this was what Scorpius had felt like moments before, she _never _would have let her mouth make a stupid joke.

Her eyes opened when she heard an exhalation and a soft thump. Scorpius had retreated a few steps and fell heavily onto the sofa, allowing the softness of the cushions to hold him up.

"I seem to be more inebriated than I'd thought. Did you just say that you loved me too?"

A small smile on her lips, Rose nodded. "I have less sense than the both of us thought, apparently."

Tentatively, he slid his hands around her hips and pulled her closer. "I, for one, never thought you had all that much sense."

She contemplated whacking him for the remark, but she still felt a little guilty for making a joke when he had told her he really loved her. A few snide remarks from him were what she deserved for doing something so unfeeling.

When he didn't receive the reprimand he'd expected, Scorpius just sat there, staring up at her with that strange look on his face again. It was something similar to besotted and didn't sit well with Rose; Scorpius wasn't supposed to be besotted with anyone but his own reflection. It just didn't fit well with his character.

If she didn't suspect that she had a similar expression on her face, she would be completely disturbed. Neither of them had ever really showed anything but animosity unless there was alcohol involved.

Now that she thought of it, Scorpius _had _been drinking that day. It was hardly fair that his senses were dulled by the effects of his libations while she was stuck without that blissful embarrassment reliever.

Starting to feel uncomfortable under his stare, Rose started to blush. She could feel the warmth creeping over her cheeks and down her neck; knowing she was blushing only made it that much more embarrassing and so darkened the red stain on her skin.

When he saw it, a slight smirk quirked up a corner of his mouth.

Rose's eyes widened and then narrowed; he was _trying _to make her uncomfortable with that stare of his. Well, two could play that game.

"Why did you disappear this morning?" she asked, a challenging glint in her blue irises. "Even someone who drinks as much as you has a reason if he starts drinking so early in the morning."

It was Scorpius' turn to glare.

A knock at the door stopped their little game form getting out of hand.

Since no one knew where they lived yet, neither of them had any idea who could be out there. Both of them sat frozen, unsure if they should answer the door.

"Rose, I need to talk to you!" Hermione called through the door.

Reflexively, Rose turned herself into a cat. She wasn't yet used to being open about her relationship with Scorpius, and it was a habit to transform into a cat so as not to be caught places she shouldn't be, like standing between Scorpius' knees while his hands rested on her hips.

"Coward," Scorpius said, shooting her an irritated look. He was just standing to get the door when it opened of its own accord.

On the other side, Hermione was slipping her wand back into her pocket. Rose made a mental note to find stronger locking charms. It had only taken her mum a moment to undo the existing ones.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

**A/N: Hello readers! I went to make a cake today and instead made an owl... **_**then **_**I made the cake. Also! My birthday is in two and a half hours! (Yes I made my own birthday cake, but only because the stores always use that stupid whipped frosting that I don't like). **

**Anyway, here's another chapter, only one more after this one. Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed and to Adele for betaing!**

**~Frosty**

"Scorpius," Hermione said, "I've wanted to talk to you as well. Is Rose not here?"

She invited herself in, looking around curiously at her daughter and stepson's new home. Her roving eyes missed the little orange cat that slipped under Scorpius' chair. Unlike a real cat, Rose made sure her tail was under the chair with her so it wouldn't give away her presence.

"What was it you wanted to talk to me about?" he asked, avoiding her question. If he told her that Rose was there, then Hermione would want to know _where _she was, and that wasn't really his secret to tell.

Rose had been an Animagus since they were both in school. In fact, that ability of hers was the beginning of their whole complicated relationship. She and Scorpius had had a rather simple relationship prior to the incident; she hated him and he hated her as well. They had tried to avoid each other as much as they could, and when that just wasn't possible, they usually ended up in shouting matches that entertained the entire school.

_One night, while Scorpius was out after hours – smoking, of course – he had seen a little orange cat running across the grounds towards him. He hadn't thought anything of it, merely assumed that she was one of the many familiars that lived at the castle, or possibly a stray that had wandered from down to the school from Hogsmead in search of food._

_His eyes widened slightly when the cat didn't stop running, didn't even seem to notice him as she barrelled towards his legs. That little cat looked like it was fleeing something that had terrified it beyond reason._

_Eyebrows drawn together in confusion, he ground out the cigarette on the rough stone of the step and palmed his wand just in case whatever had scared the little cat was something dangerous enough to threaten him as well. One could never be too careful when on the Hogwarts grounds. If the cat was running from something in the forest, it was best that he be prepared. _

_For some unknown reason, the cat just kept coming right towards him in a panicked hurdle. He expected it to swerve around him when it reached where he was perched on the stair, but it didn't. The little creature collided with his legs, the thump it made nearly silent but the impact had to hurt the poor little animal. It was lucky that the cat had collided with his legs instead of the hard stone of the steps, there would have been no cushioning on the stone and it would have hurt even more. _

_While Scorpius had no patience with humans and was more often than not a right prat to his peers, he had no such problems with animals. He was half braced for sharp little claws to dig into his legs, but it didn't happen._

_Confused, he peeked down at the trembling cat as it pressed itself against the stair he was sitting on, sheltered by his bent legs. The little cat was decidedly un-catlike. Most normal cats would seek out a human to use for shelter when there were a multitude of better options available to them in the castle and surrounding area._

_After glancing around to make sure no one would notice his kindness, Scorpius hesitantly reached down and gently ran his hand over the puffed-up fur on the cat's head._

_It's oddly intelligent eyes turned up to stare at him, screaming panic and fear. Somehow, - probably because he'd yet to be scratched – Scorpius knew that the panic wasn't directed at him. Something else had scared it._

_The little cat just watched him intently as he petted it, trying to get it to stop its trembling._

"_You're an odd creature," he murmured, slowly wrapping his hands around the cat so he could pick it up and set it in his lap._

_With nothing but the moon's progress across the sky to track the time, they sat like that for hours, the little cat trembling while Scorpius murmured assurances and petted her. He wasn't sure if she could understand him, but he hoped the sound of his voice would soothe her a bit. Gradually, she relaxed against him and stopped her trembling, but the cat didn't purr or fall asleep like a normal cat would have done in the same situation. Instead, she just stared out at the grounds with wide, haunted eyes. _

_The red glow of the horizon was just starting to lighten the sky when Scorpius was jolted out of the light doze he'd fallen into by a sudden weight on top of him. He was pinned to the steps by what appeared to be a person. Whoever it was, they were certainly heavier than the small cat._

"_What the hell?" he demanded, preparing to shove her away from him. It was definitely a her, he could feel her curves through all the layers of clothing the both of them were wearing._

_Instead of giving in to his immediate reflex to shove her away, he examined her first. She appeared to be in shock, looking at her hands with wonder and relief. She flexed her fingers a few times, still too focused on them to notice she was perched on Scorpius' lap._

_Even before her blue eyes darted up to meet his, he knew who she was. There was only one person with such a crazed mass of curly red hair._

_When their eyes met, he came to a shocking realization. There was something really familiar about those eyes. The pupils and colour were different, but the intelligence behind them was not. He'd had trouble understanding what was happening when the cat was suddenly gone, but everything was clear to him now; the cat hadn't disappeared, just changed her shape._

"_You're an Animagus," he said._

_She blinked a few times before extracting herself from his lap with as much dignity as she could muster – it wasn't much, she was completely horrified by the entire situation._

"_Not a good one, I was stuck." Her words weren't intended for his ears, but the night was quiet and he could hear her quiet mutterings. "You can't tell anyone, Malfoy," she said, pinning him with her stare. _

_Glinting in the moonlight, his silver eyes narrowed at her. "I wasn't aware that you were in a position to make demands," he said coolly._

"_I know you take pleasure in tormenting me, but you proved tonight that you have kindness in you. When you thought I was a cat, you helped me. Just this once, do something kind for a person?" she pleaded. At his reluctant silence, she continued with a bitter smile twisting her lips, "I promise not to tell anyone that you have a heart buried in there if you agree not to tell anyone I'm an Animagus."_

_Scorpius scoffed; no one would believe he had a heart. Nevertheless, he didn't want to ruin his image, and there was something about her pleading expression that he couldn't find it in himself to ignore. "Fine, this never happened."_

"I want to know what you intend to do with Rose here," Hermione said firmly. "I love you both, but I refuse to watch while she wastes her life trying to keep you out of trouble."

"I don't do that," he said defensively. It was a little hurtful that Hermione had so little faith in him. However, he kind of deserved her distrust, having spent much of his youth cultivating a reputation that was now working against him.

Hermione lowered herself onto the sofa, her hand steadying her belly before she looked up at him, one eyebrow raised skeptically. "Then what was today about? She came to the Manor looking for you, and somehow I doubt you were just off in town, running some errands."

"I wasn't drunk, I just needed some space." Scorpius wasn't comfortable with the direction of their conversation. He _may _have been a tad inebriated, but he wouldn't say he'd been _drunk_, so technically, he wasn't lying to Hermione. He was acutely aware that Rose was in the room, listening to their every word. This only increased his discomfort tenfold.

"She doesn't show it much, but she worries about you when you're out getting into trouble."

The blond had to consciously stop himself from shifting in discomfort. _Malfoys don't fidget, _he reminded himself, something his father had been telling him since he was a young boy. He knew that Rose worried about him when he was out; it was why she yelled so much and why he always drunkenly tried to sooth her anger and his guilt by throwing himself at her. Well, that and he had been so drunk that he'd actually thought he'd have a chance with her. It wasn't logical, but love rarely is.

"I've cut down on the drinking," he reassured the brunette staring at him with her intelligent eyes. He wasn't lying; his adventures of that morning had been a fluke, brought on by crushing disappointment and heartache.

In a strange, backwards way, his father's harsh punishment of working for his grandfather had actually achieved the intended purpose of straightening him out. It just hadn't worked the way Draco had intended; tough to get along with he may be, but Draco didn't have a death wish for his son, even Scorpius knew that.

Hermione stared hard at him, trying to discern if he was telling the truth. When it became apparent that she wasn't going to be able to read him, she leaned back slightly and sighed. "I just want you two to be happy, and I have my doubts that you'll find that happiness together." She tried to show that she didn't mean any offense with the apology in her eyes. "Tell Rose I was looking for her?"

Scorpius nodded and stood, offering her his arm when she struggled to get to her feet once more. He knew Hermione was kind and not trying to hurt him, so he didn't let himself take it too personally that she didn't think he was right for Rose.

"You two have a lovely place here, but don't forget you're always welcome at the Manor, no matter what your father says," Hermione announced, patting Scorpius on the arm. He was a little damaged, but essentially a good boy. "Give him some time; I know Draco will feel horrible for what he's done once his anger recedes a little."

Awkwardly, he nodded, not willing to delve further into that topic.

"How did you know where we lived?" Scorpius asked, unable to let her leave without finding out how she'd known. He didn't want his father just showing up unannounced like his wife had; one more lecture like the one he'd received before leaving the Manor and he might not be able tos top himself from hexing the older man.

Hermione smiled, the shine in her eye reminding him that she was a powerful witch, not just the woman who had married his father. "I put a tracking spell on her when she came looking for you at the Manor. A mother should know where her daughter lives. I'm just sorry I missed her."

"What did you need to talk to Rose about?"

Hermione frowned. "She's missed work and had a horrible attitude while she was there. They let her go today. Her supervisor came to me personally to apologise for having to fire her."

Scorpius refrained from snickering. Considering what Rose had told him about her job, it didn't come as a surprise to him that she'd been fired.

When Hermione was safely on the other side of the door, he turned to the seemingly empty room.

"You owe me for that," he said without looking around to check if Rose was anywhere near. He knew that her curiosity would not have allowed her to leave the room without knowing what it was that her mum had wanted with her – and him for that matter.

True to her nature, Rose _had _stayed to listen. As soon as the door was closed behind her mum, her little orange ears poked out from under the sofa, soon followed by the rest of her small furry body. A moment later, she was standing before him, back in her own body once more.

Rose had a sour look on her face. "I _hate _trying to find a job," she grumbled.

"Then maybe you shouldn't have been such a horrible employee," Scorpius said with a smirk.

Instead of answering with words, Rose chucked one of the throw pillows at him.

"Wrathful Weasley strikes again," Scorpius muttered. The people of the office hadn't known how apt the nickname was when they'd given it to her. They'd never have to experience the _true_ wrath of the redhead, she seemed to reserve that _honour_ for Scorpius alone.

"Don't abuse the one to whom you owe your eternal servitude," he said in a haughty voice.

Rose rolled her eyes at his exaggerated attitude. "Don't think my 'eternal servitude' is going to stop me from continuing our earlier conversation. You disappeared on me and I want to know why. You know how I feel about people just leaving." To her chagrin, there was vulnerability in her voice no matter how hard she tried to fend it off. Anger could only do so much to hide her softer emotions, and hers just wasn't doing enough.

Scorpius dropped his teasing attitude and dragged her onto the sofa beside him, his arm tight around her shoulder keeping her there. "I didn't mean to make you think I'd left. I would have thought that you know better by now. You're stuck with me."

Oddly enough, that was actually comforting to her.

Sensing that she wasn't going to have one of those female breakdown moments on him, Scorpius moved on to her question. "As for why I left, I was feeling a little... rejected at the time. I needed to be away from you for a while."

"Why?" she asked.

"I told you that Lucius had a heart attack when he found out that I was in love with my stepsister," he muttered, not quite looking at her. Rose wasn't the only one with vulnerabilities.

There was a line between Rose's eyebrows as she furrowed them in thought. "No, that's not what you said. You told me that's what you said to kill him, but you didn't say whether you were just making it up like I'd told you to, or if you were telling the truth. How was I supposed to know which one it was? You'd never exactly showed me that you might love me in the past."

He pulled away from her slightly too look at her incredulously. "You think I'd put up with the kind of shit you're forever elbow deep in for just anyone?"

Well, when he put it that way, she supposed he had a point. She was sure there was a sweet sentiment... buried somewhere deep within his sharp words.

"Likewise," she said, slightly embarrassed. His behaviour every time he was drunk made a little more sense with that little jewel of insight. He wasn't affectionate to anyone else when he was drunk and she'd always vaguely wondered what was going on with that. It was easier to assume that he just lived to annoy her than to consider the alternatives though.

She missed his decisive nod because she'd ducked her chin in her embarrassment.

"Where are you going?" Rose asked, allowing Scorpius to tug her from the sofa towards the bedroom.

"Scorpius?"

He kissed her tenderly then, stopping her questions before she made him explain something that should have been obvious. They'd been dancing around each other for years and had yet to be properly together, with nothing there in the background, preventing the moment from being what it should be. Merlin, she was turning him into some kind of bleeding heart romantic. She better not speak her thoughts out loud, or Scorpius would probably laugh himself sick and then mock her for the rest of their natural lives.

Rose quickly picked up on what Scorpius was intending and was more than happy to comply.

* * *

><p>"Starting the job search today?" Scorpius asked, watching Rose run through the apartment searching for her shoes while he lounged on the sofa. The stupid things only seemed to disappear when she needed to wear them. Rose half-suspected that Scorpius hid them on her because he didn't want her to go out and get a job, instead just staying at their apartment to entertain him.<p>

Not needing the money, Scorpius seemed perfectly content to bask in his unemployment like a lazy cat in the sun. He'd used every trick he could think of to get Rose to do the same –including hiding her interview clothes on more than one occasion - but she refused to let him make her a "useless layabout" like him.

"You know I am," she snapped. The stress of trying to find employment without her mum's help was harder than she'd thought. It seemed that she'd gained a bit of infamy while working at the Ministry. She hadn't counted on her former coworkers badmouthing her to what felt like the entire Magical world.

"Why don't I just give you a loan and you can start your own business. Be a private investigator like we both know you secretly want." He only suggested a loan because he knew that she wouldn't let him just give her the money. If she took it, he'd do his best to stop her from repaying it.

She froze and stared at him. "How did you know that?"

"Please," the blond scoffed. "You're not as hard to read as you like to think. For instance, I know you don't want to use my money, but you're still sorely tempted to take me up on my offer."

Her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out.

Scorpius grinned. "I'm taking that as a yes."

Any objections she may have had were drowned out as he dragged her from the apartment to start their search for office space.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

**A/N: Hello readers! LAST CHAPTER! I'm quite excited. **

**Thanks so much for everyone who reviewed and especially those who have been reading and reviewing this since I posted the very first chapter! Also thanks to Adele for betaing!**

**Ugh. I have a problem with abusing the exclamation point... I'm just so excited to post the last chapter! I think a few of you have been waiting for the scene at the very end.**

**~Frosty**

Proudly, Rose used her wand to carve her name into the plaque adorning the door of her very own office. Starting the business hadn't been as easy as Scorpius seemed to think; she had to first get her certification, and then there had been a pile of legal gibberish for them to wade through in setting up their business – something Scorpius had proved to be surprisingly adept at.

It had taken months, but she was now the proud owner of her very own business. No more bosses or annoyingly inquisitive coworkers prying into her personal issues.

Turning away from the shiny plaque, she winced. While the brass was shiny and perfectly neat, everything else in the office was chaos, and Scorpius was a horrible assistant.

After only a week of being unemployed, he had decided that he was going to work with her to fend off the boredom that had plagued him while he was alone at their apartment. He'd claimed that there was only so much daytime television a bloke could watch before he started to get the desire to "paint an accent wall or some such nonsense". Rose suspected that he was just at the office to see if he could fulfill some dirty office fantasies in the office and when she had immediately shot down that idea, he defaulted to seeing how much he could annoy her without getting sent home.

While Rose filed paperwork in her brand new filing cabinet, she could just see his back outside the window as he indulged on his fourth cigarette break of the last two hours. He was going to give himself lung cancer trying to avoid doing actual work.

Frustrated with having to handle the paperwork on her own, she stomped over to the door and dragged it open, smiling at the little bells that trilled at the movement of the door before a frown once again overtook her features. "Who in the world are you waiting for out here?" she snapped.

Scorpius' eyes lazily trailed over the crowd passing by before he settled them on her. "I'm not waiting for anyone. Come on, let's get lunch."

He took her hand and dragged her away from the store. Rose wanted to protest that she had too much work to do, but she was hungry. If she was being honest, she needed the break anyway.

Lunch was a quiet affair, Scorpius seemed to be deep in thought and Rose didn't bother pushing him. He'd come to her eventually if he wanted to speak about it, pushing him would just put them both in a foul mood. Instead she focused on her surprisingly delicious tuna sandwich, chewing it carefully.

As soon as they were once again within sight of the office, she could tell that something was wrong. The windows were dark and the shades were drawn, but Rose clearly remembered leaving them open.

Scorpius felt her tense and reach for her wand, but he seemed to know that was going on. He took her elbow and guided her the rest of the way into the shop, a small head shake telling her that she wasn't going to need the wand.

What she found inside her shop nearly brought tears to her eyes. It was her entire family, with cake and party hats. A large banner was strung across the wall, saying "Congratulations Rose!" It was a good thing Scorpius was so close, he was able to stop her stumbling from shock.

"What is all this?" she asked in a whisper.

Hermione, baby in her arms, approached her daughter. "It's a party for you. You've finally started to get your life in order and we're all so proud of you!"

One armed, she hugged her daughter and then Scorpius. When Hermione was finished hugging Rose, and Scorpius had stepped away from her after standing stiffly for a moment to allow Hermione to get her overly affectionate gesture out of the way, Hermione looked over her shoulder and made a beckoning motion to someone behind her.

As repentant-looking as a Malfoy was capable of appearing, Draco came up behind his wife and turned his eyes on his son. Hermione elbowed him to get him speaking.

"I suppose I was a little hasty in banning you from the Manor. If you were to visit, I _suppose_ I could refrain from hexing you off of the property," Draco said.

Scorpius gave a short nod and Draco nodded in return. It was as good as a tearful hug in a normal, emotionally healthy family. Knowing that was the best they were going to get, Rose smiled radiantly at her family. It was good that they were back to normal.

She spotted Hugo and Albus in the crowd and waved to them over Hermione's shoulder. For some reason, her brother and cousin didn't look happy. In fact, they looked downright furious. The anger wasn't directed towards her, but Rose still wanted to know what it was that had incited their wrath.

Thanking her mum again for the party, she made her way through the crowd to her brother, Scorpius in tow. "What's wrong?" she whispered.

Hugo pointed over the sea of redheads to someone outside, peeking in the window.

Rose heard Scorpius start cursing behind her as he recognised the man at the same time she did. It seemed that her wayward father had decided to make an appearance at her party.

No one else had caught sight of Ron yet, and Rose, not wanting to make a scene, slipped back out the door without anyone really noticing – George had decided to set off some indoor fireworks that were wreaking havoc with the guests, so she was hardly the most notable thing in the room. If they wrecked her office with their little party she was going to dismember them, starting with her Uncle George. She was just starting to get everything in order.

"What are you doing here?" Rose demanded, her arms crossed and feet braced, ready for a confrontation. The sudden redness of her father's face and the warmth at her back told her that Scorpius had followed her and was standing entirely too close once again. She glanced back at the blond out of the corner of her eye and shook her head slightly. She wanted to handle this on her own; no matter how much Scorpius would have liked to have another go at Ron, he was going to have to restrain himself.

"George said he had somewhere to be, I followed him. I never would have thought that you would sink so low as to follow in your Death Eater loving mother's footsteps," Ron snarled. "There must be something wrong with the both of you for choosing Malfoys."

Oddly enough, Rose was experiencing none of that crushing feeling she used to get around the man that was the source of most of her issues. While Scorpius' steady support and presence had done wonders for her, Rose suspected that her lack of fear was because she'd faced worse and come out on top. Sure, Ron was a little threatening when he was in a full rage, but he was no cursed Dark object. He'd yell, possibly use his wand to try and hex her and maybe handler her too roughly, but he wasn't capable of slowly sucking the life from her.

She never would have thought the fact that Ron wasn't some sort of energy-sucking vampire would be so comforting to her, yet it was.

Rose didn't even bother taking out her wand, though she did make sure she knew where it was in her pocket. She drew herself up to her full height and made sure to look Ron right in his eyes. "You're just a sad little man unable to deal with the fact that Mum doesn't love you anymore and that it's entirely your own fault. You've lost your chance with her and your chance to know either of your children, and the only way you can deal with it is lashing out at us."

Ron was getting increasingly red as she continued to talk.

"You think you're better than everyone else just because you have money now-" Ron started, only to be interrupted by his daughter.

"No, I only think I'm better than _you_. And it's not because I have money – it's _Scorpius' _money, I'm still broke – it's because I _am_ better than you. Better as a person and as a family member. I didn't and won't leave when times get tough."

Ron took a step towards her, his intentions unclear, but Rose was faster. She had her wand at the ready and pointed between his eyes before he was even within reaching distance of her. "I think it'd be best for everyone if you just went away. And this time, make sure you _stay_ gone. You've lost your chance for anything resembling happiness here."

Cowed, Ron skulked back down the street, presumably to go back to watching the store as he'd probably been told to do.

Scorpius slipped an arm around her waist and kissed her temple. "Feel good?" he asked.

Nodding, she briefly leant against him. Despite her lack of fear, she was still shaking slightly with adrenalin and welcomed the support. "I feel great. Now let's get inside and finish the rest of my party."

"Okay, but we're having our own celebration tonight."

She nodded, leading him back inside.

* * *

><p>Rose groaned and rubbed her head. It hurt. <em>Everything <em>hurt.

She wasn't really one for drinking - much less in excess - but she knew a hangover when she felt one. And the one she was feeling was a severe case of something that was already horrible.

If she could only figure out how it was that she'd arrived at her current state...

At the sound of a groan that wasn't her own, she cracked her eyes open slightly and glanced around the room. She'd seen the place before – on several occasions, actually - but never from the inside.

Reaching towards the sound of the other groan, she whacked Scorpius with all of her reduced strength.

"What was that for?" he demanded without taking the hand he'd flung over his face away from his eyes. The light was probably paining him as much as it was her. She had no sympathy.

"I don't remember how yet, but this is entirely your fault."

"I'd be indignant that you're so quick to blame me, but one: I'm too tired to really muster up the proper indignation, and two: it probably was my fault."

She took a few breaths to be sure the contents of her stomach weren't going to rebel and make an appearance all over the floor before sitting up. Her head tilted back against the brick wall, the metal of the bench underneath her cool against her palms, she sucked in a few more steadying breaths. Only halfway to standing and already she felt like she was going to die. The day was not looking good.

It hurt her brain to think too hard, but she was desperate to remember what had happened the previous night. Most of it was a blank, but she _could _still remember her run-in with her father and Scorpius' promise to celebrate.

"When you said that we were having our own celebration, I was thinking a fancy dinner, not _this_," she complained.

Scorpius was saved from having to answer by footsteps echoing down the hall.

"I see you're up. How're you feeling?" a voice asked.

Rose turned her head slowly so it didn't pound worse. "Like death, Patrick. Thanks for asking."

The MLE agent on the other side of the bars looked entirely too amused to see her sitting in a holding cell alongside Scorpius for the first time ever. Maybe that was why he did so well manning the holding cells; he got a kick out of seeing people he knew in some capacity at the low points in their lives. Rose certainly hadn't felt lower in recent memory. It was a wonder Scorpius had done this on something of a regular schedule, she never would have been able to handle it.

She shot a glance at the blond to see how he was handling it in the present. It seemed that he was asleep, a hand flung over his head to block out the sunlight. She'd only _just _been talking to him and already he was asleep on the uncomfortable bench. Git.

Forcing herself up from the bench, Rose walked over to the bars. "How's the wife?" she asked. "The baby's got to be almost two by now."

Patrick nodded. "They're not kidding when they call them the 'terrible twos', but I can go on about my home life later. Right now, I imagine you're more concerned with getting out of there before someone you know sees you."

Blushing, she made an embarrassed sound of agreement. It was good to be polite though, so she couldn't have just demanded to be let out without making some small talk first. She was just pondering who she should call to bail her out – it was Scorpius' fault that they were in there and she wasn't yet sure if she was going to get him out as well – when Patrick spoke again.

"I was going to come in here to see if you had anyone you wanted to call to bail you out, but someone showed up before I could – two someones actually."

Rose was confused, but before Patrick could elaborate, voices echoed down the hall.

"I _told _you this was where he'd be," said a frighteningly familiar voice.

"Fine, I owe you a Galleon," another person snapped.

Rose closed her eyes in mortification as her bother and cousin came into view. Albus looking smug while Hugo fished around in his pockets, presumably for the Galleon he owed.

Before she could speak – whether to beg them to leave so they wouldn't bear witness to her shame or to plead with them to get her out of the cell, even Rose wasn't sure – Albus raised a camera he'd been hiding in the folds of his cloak and blinded her with the flash as he took a picture.

"I suppose too much change in so little time _was _a little unnerving," Hugo commented, looking over his shoulder at Albus, who was busy taking pictures.

"Are you implying this sort of behaviour is expected of me?" Rose demanded. She blinked furiously, trying to clear the flash spots in her vision enough to properly glare at everyone. In the end, she had to settle for a nasty look in the general direction of the voices. The next person who said one wrong thing was going to get skinned alive, she could just feel a rage coming on. It didn't help that she still felt horrible and the camera flashes were making her nausea and headache worse.

"No," Hugo said, his tone placating. "But this kind of behaviour is normal for Scorpius. I meant that he's changed over the past few weeks, but not enough to keep out of jail."

Oh, that was fine then. All the anger bled out of Rose and she sagged against the bars. "Just get us out of here," she sighed.

Another flash of the camera reminded her that Albus was there as well. "And if you don't stop taking pictures, I promise you you're going to regret it," she snapped at her cousin.

Hugo handed Patrick a bag of gold, and the MLE officer proceeded to slide open the door.

Suddenly Scorpius was up off of the bench and headed towards the door. He reached out a hand as he passed to drag Rose along with him, eager to be out of the cell he had entirely too much experience with.

Rose let him tow her, Hugo, Albus and Patrick following. She was pretty sure her cousin was asking what it was she'd done to get herself thrown in jail. Come to think of it, she'd like to know what she'd done as well.

"Remind me never to celebrate with you again," she muttered.

Scorpius snorted. "I will do no such thing. You let loose for once, and it was magnificent."

Her eyes widened in horror as she started to remember the previous night and what had landed them in jail in the first place. As soon as she could turn her head without fighting off waves of pain and nausea, she was going to _murder _him. No, bribe the press first, _then _murder him.

Completely unconcerned about his imminent death or his horrible breath, Scorpius kissed her temple and slid an arm around her waist, smirking. The bloody bastard was probably remembering their night as well and how thoroughly he'd managed to corrupt her with so little coercion.

"Think of it like this: now you have notoriety on the streets. People will be more willing to come to a PI with experience."

Rose glared. "That's rubbish and you know it."

She mentally flipped through her memories of the previous night, cringing in horror at each new detail that popped up. How does one even _get_ matching top hats and a dozen live ducks at midnight? Increasingly horrified as more of the night came to light, Rose turned around to look at her brother.

'Get me a Hangover Potion so I can kill him,' she mouthed to Hugo.

The redhead shook his head and smiled at his sister, causing her to glare before turning back to Scorpius.

The blond froze just before they were out of the building, looking around in horror. When Rose jerked to a stop from the restricting arm around her waist, she took a look around as well, wondering what his problem was. She spotted it almost immediately.

In the MLE waiting area there were plush chairs, expensive-looking tables and even a large aquarium in the corner. Patrick had taken her suggestion and made the waiting room much more comfortable.

"This all came out of my pocket, didn't it?" Scorpius asked.

Rose was slightly smug and wanted to gloat, but the fish reminded her that they'd been to Muggle London and gotten themselves banned from the aquarium there. Apparently the staff frowned on it when people broke in after hours and tried to release twelve slightly singed and completely traumatised ducks into the stingray tank.

"As soon as I remember everything we did last night, I'll think of an appropriate way to murder you for it," she said, glaring up at Scorpius, who was still looking irritated about their surroundings.

"They're an odd couple, but somehow, they work," Albus said quietly, watching the pair's interactions with amusement.

Hugo turned to watch his sister glare at Scorpius, who, smirking at her irritation, didn't notice that she was obviously planning his demise – that or he didn't take the threat seriously.

"They do," Hugo answered, "But just in case, I think we should make sure Rose has some time to calm down before we give her that Hangover Potion."

Patrick and Albus nodded their agreement.


End file.
